Tuesday’s Movers: Shopify Inc (US) (SHOP) Soars, Houston American Energy Corporation (HUSA) Skyrockets, Geron Corporation (GERN) Sinks
Shopify Inc (US)
Shopify Inc (US) (NYSE:SHOP) shares are soaring nearly 10% in Tuesday’s trading session, following better-than-expectet second quarter earnings results. SHOP announced that revenue had spiked by 75% year-over-year to $151.7 million, while gross profit also rose by an impressive 83% from the same period last year.
Shopify also revealed that it now has over 500,000 merchants on its platform from 175 different countries. The geographical break down shows that merchant sign-ups increased by 56% in North America, 82% in Asia, 168% in South America and 70% in Africa. Shopify is now forecasting revenue for the full year in the range of $642 million to $648 million- which easily surpasses the previous analyst consensus estimate of $628.4 million.
“The best way to think about Shopify,” said CEO Tobias Lütke, “is that we’ve put the train on the right track and now we’re going to pick up speed.”
On the news five-star Canaccord Genuity analyst Richard Davis reiterated his SHOP buy rating with a $90 price target. As his low-price target suggests, Davis believes the stock is currently expensive but recommends “holding for at least another quarter in order to get a look at 2018.” Davis thinks the stock has potential in 2018 if “everything clicks” and is anticipating another positive earnings result and guidance from SHOP. (To see Davis' track record, click here)
TipRanks reveals that SHOP has a moderate buy analyst consensus rating. In the last three months, 9 analysts issued a Buy rating on the stock, while 8 analysts rated SHOP a Buy. Meanwhile, with share prices rising the average analyst price target of $93.25 now stands at a -7.37% downside from the current share price.
Houston American Energy Corporation
Houston American Energy Corporation (NYSEMKT:HUSA) shares are skyrocketing by 30% in today’s trading. The reason? The company has just announced a positive initial production rate for its Johnson State #1H well, which is located in Reeves County, Texas. This is the company’s first “meaningful” US well.
The latest daily flowback report indicates that the well has production rates of 351 barrels of oil per day and 4,269 mcf of natural gas per day, which is equivaled to a combined 1,062 barrels of oil per day. The company has recently begun to invest in the lucrative Permian basin (as well as Louisiana and Columbia) and is now expecting to see an improvement in profitability from in the next quarter.
HUSA CEO John Boylan stated, "We are very pleased to begin seeing the fruits of our investments in Reeves County. Our Johnson State #1H well is our first Reeves County well and initial results are encouraging and slightly exceed our original expectations.”
Meanwhile the company's second Reeves County well, the O'Brien #3H, reached total depth on July 1, 2017. This 4,575ft shale well is scheduled to commence hydraulic fracturing operations during the second half of August 2017.
Geron Corporation
Shares in Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) are sinking by -12% in Tuesday’s trading, after the biotech company provided an update for its Imetelstat clinical development. Geron is carrying out two clinical trials assessing the telomerase inhibitor imetelstat in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and myelofibrosis (MF). For the IMerge clinical trial, the joint steering committee said that Part 1 will be expanded to enroll 20 additional patients in a refined MDS population. This is because the trial still needs to confirm the clinical benefit and safety observed from current results. For IMerge the primary efficacy endpoint is the rate of red blood cell (RBC) transfusion independence (TI) lasting at least 8 weeks. However the second IMBark clinical trial remains unchanged.
Out of the 4 analysts polled in the past 12 months, 2 rate Geron stock a Buy, while 2 rate the stock a Hold. With a return potential of 60%, the stock's consensus target price stands at $3.75.
