Shopify (SHOP) Tops Q2 EPS by $1.28, Revenues Gross $1B

Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) reported Q2 EPS of $2.24, $1.28 better than the analyst estimate of $0.96. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.12 billion versus the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion.

GMV for the second quarter was $42.2 billion, an increase of $12.1 billion or 40% over the second quarter of 2020. Gross Payments Volume3 ("GPV") grew to $20.3 billion, which accounted for 48.0% of GMV processed in the quarter, versus $13.4 billion, or 45%, for the second quarter of 2020.

"This past year has been one of great uncertainty for independent merchants. What used to be two completely distinct industries, the retail industry and the online commerce industry, are now just the commerce industry. In this new reality, our goal at Shopify is clearer than ever: we want to give entrepreneurs around the world the best chance to create their own certainty, to reach for independence and to seize opportunity that they uniquely see. Shopify is building the essential infrastructure for this increasingly digital world to allow as many people as possible to participate," said Tobi Lutke, Shopify's CEO at our recent Shopify Unite developer conference.

"Shopify fired on all cylinders in our second quarter, keeping our merchants well equipped to seize the opportunities presented in a post-pandemic retail era," said Amy Shapero, Shopify's CFO. "As consumer spending remained strong, our merchants thrived and extracted more value from our platform, contributing to our rapid growth. We built on our momentum, making significant updates to our platform infrastructure, expanding strategic partnerships, and advancing our portfolio of growth initiatives to future-proof the success of tomorrow's entrepreneurs."

GUIDANCE:

The outlook that follows constitutes forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws and is based on a number of assumptions and subject to a number of risks. Actual results could vary materially as a result of numerous factors, including certain risk factors, many of which are beyond Shopify's control. Please see "Forward-looking Statements" below.

In addition to the other assumptions and factors described in this press release, Shopify's outlook assumes the continuation of growth trends in our industry, our ability to manage our growth effectively, the absence of material changes in our industry or the global economy and other assumptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which are described in detail below. The following statements supersede all prior statements made by Shopify and are based on current expectations. As these statements are forward-looking, actual results may differ materially.

These statements do not give effect to the potential impact of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures or business combinations that may be announced or closed after the date hereof. All numbers provided in this section are approximate.

Our outlook for the remainder of 2021 is consistent with our assumptions in February. We have seen an improvement in the overall economic environment through the first half of 2021, consumer spending beginning to rotate back to services and off-line retail, and ecommerce growing at a more normalized pace relative to 2020.

In view of these factors and Shopify's performance for the six months ending June 30, 2021, we continue to expect to grow revenue rapidly in 2021, but at a lower rate than in 2020. For the full year 2021, we continue to expect the following:

Subscriptions solutions revenue growth to be driven by more merchants around the world joining the platform in a number lower than the record in 2020, but higher than any year prior to 2020;

The growth rates of subscription solutions and merchant solutions revenues to be more similar to each other than in the recent past, as we do not expect the surge in GMV that drove merchant solutions in 2020 to repeat; and,

Merchant solutions revenue growth to be driven by continued GMV growth from existing merchants, new merchants joining the platform, and expanded adoption of Shopify's growing menu of merchant solutions, including established offerings such as Shopify Payments, Shopify Shipping, and Shopify Capital, both geographically and as merchants grow into them, while newer solutions such as Shopify Fulfillment Network and 6 River Systems contribute nascent but incremental revenue in their early stages.

We expect that the first quarter will likely still contribute the smallest share of full-year revenue and the fourth quarter the largest, and that the revenue spread will be more evenly distributed across the four quarters than it has been historically.

We continue to expect rapid growth in gross profit dollars in 2021 and plan to continue reinvesting back into our business as aggressively as we can, with the year-over-year growth in operating expenses accelerating in Q3 and again in Q4. Due to the sustained momentum of digital commerce trends in the first half of 2021 combined with the U.S. stimulus distributed in March and April of 2021, Shopify generated higher-than-anticipated revenue while incurring lower-than-planned operating expenses as a percent of revenue in the first half of 2021. As a result, we now expect full-year 2021 adjusted operating income to be above the level we achieved in 2020.

For 2021, we continue to anticipate stock-based compensation expenses and related payroll taxes of $425 million and amortization of acquired intangibles of $21 million.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Shopify (SHOP) click here.

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