Piper Jaffray initiates coverage on Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) with a Overweight rating and a price target of $25.00.

Analyst Gene Munster commented, "We are initiating on shares of SHOP with on Overweight rating and $25 price target (5x '17 EV/Sales), based on the belief that Shopify is the best positioned platform to monetize the growth of small merchants selling online. Shopify is the leading platform for offerings spanning both digital and physical retail; its core offering revolves around creating and managing online eCommerce presences, including company-specific websites, payments acceptance, 3rd party channel enablement (eCommerce and social platforms), back-end resource planning and accounting integration, and a host of marketing, fulfillment, recordkeeping, and back office applications available through Shopify's app store. We believe shares deserve to trade at a premium multiple of 5x (vs. comp group at 2.8x) given the company is growing 2.5x faster than the comp group with a better longterm growth trajectory. Initiating with Overweight rating and $25 price target (29% upside)."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Shopify click here. For more ratings news on Shopify click here.

Shares of Shopify closed at $19.33 yesterday.