Shopify’s AI Push Meets Pre‑Earnings Jitters as Traders Load Puts

Overview

• Options traders stepped up protection in early April, with about 12,000 Shopify put contracts changing hands and the put‑to‑call ratio rising to 5.19, a pattern often used to hedge into results.
• Wells Fargo trimmed its price target to $166 but kept an Overweight rating, citing confidence that AI‑driven “agentic commerce” could become a key growth driver for Shopify.
• CIBC reiterated an Outperform rating with a $185 target and said it expects strong first‑quarter results that could meet or beat Street forecasts.
• Management guided to revenue growth in the low 30% range and gross profit dollar growth in the high 20% for the first quarter, with operating expenses at 37% to 38% of revenue.
• Street estimates call for roughly $3.09 billion in revenue and GAAP earnings of $0.24 per share, as investors weigh Shopify’s new Tinker app, which bundles 100‑plus AI tools using models from OpenAI and Google to speed image, video, and logo creation.