Is Shopify Making the Right Move With This Secondary Offering?

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 12, 3:11AM EST · Published Feb 21, 12:20PM EST

Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP) saw its shares pull back on Wednesday after the firm announced a secondary offering. Although some investors generally don’t like seeing companies raising cash this way and ultimately diluting their own shareholders, this offering appears to be a solid move by Shopify.

According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, the firm intends to price its 4.8 million shares at $137 each. At this price, the entire offering is valued up to $657.6 million.

Over the past 52 weeks, Shopify has seen its shares more than double — up about 132% to be precise. At this point taking some profit is not a bad idea. Plus, Shopify can put the funds to good use and continue to grow its business.

The firm expects to use the net proceeds from the offering to strengthen its balance sheet, providing flexibility to fund its growth strategies. Pending their use, Shopify intends to invest the net proceeds from the offering in short-term, investment-grade, interest-bearing instruments or hold them as cash.

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Keep in mind that Shopify’s last short interest was last seen at 5.97 million shares, with 4.5 days to cover. This makes up about 8% of its entire float.

Shopify is the leading cloud-based, multichannel commerce platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. Merchants can use the software to design, set up and manage their stores across multiple sales channels, including web, mobile, social media, marketplaces, brick-and-mortar locations and pop-up shops. The platform also provides merchants with a powerful back-office and a single view of their business.

Shares of Shopify were down about 5% at $135.26 on Wednesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $144.65 and a 52-week range of $58.62 to $146.12.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.