The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Jan. 28, edition that National Bank analyst John Shao has reaffirmed his "outperform" recommendation and $140 share target for Shopify (all figures U.S.). The Globe's David Leeder writes that analysts on average target the shares at $119.54. Mr. Shao says in a note: "Our analysis has Q4 GMV coming in above consensus at $95-billion (Street: $93-billion), a 25-per-cent year-over-year increase (37 per cent quarter-over-quarter). We see continued share gains with the company powering 29 per cent of global stores (vs. 26 per cent in Q4'23) with continued gains in the U.S. e-commerce market with a share more than 10 per cent. From a geographic mix perspective, we see 55 per cent plus of new merchants coming from non-North American markets. We estimate Shopify's merchant count was up 6 per cent sequentially in Q4. Importantly, we see a (continued) growing proportion of additions came from larger merchants." The Globe reported on May 19 that Mr. Shao continued to rate Shopify "outperform." The shares could then be had for $58.53. The Globe reported on Jan. 21 that National Bank's Richard Tse had reiterated his "outperform" call for Shopify when it could be had for $106.28.