Shopify Inc. (SHOP) shares surged 5.02% during intraday trading on Friday, reflecting strong investor confidence in the e-commerce platform's prospects.

The rally followed an analyst note from Oppenheimer highlighting that Shopify is maintaining its long-term strategy of balancing growth and profitability, with no expected compression in its 2026 free cash flow margin. The brokerage noted that lower first-quarter profitability reflects timing of slightly higher taxes, which should normalize over the year.

Oppenheimer emphasized that Shopify is well-positioned for agentic commerce as it prioritizes driving artificial intelligence adoption, launches new tools such as Sidekick, and uses AI to increase efficiencies while keeping headcount flat. Management also pointed to a growing advertising opportunity, which provides a large, untapped total addressable market to support long-term growth. The firm maintains an outperform rating on Shopify with a price target of $200.