Shopify's stock surged 5.16% in pre-market trading on Wednesday, continuing its recent upward momentum as investors anticipate the company's quarterly earnings report.

The rally follows a significant analyst upgrade and growing optimism about Shopify's positioning in the AI era. Michael Morton, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, upgraded Shopify's stock to buy from neutral and increased his price target to $150 from $122, citing the company's potential to win the "AI commerce wars." He noted that Shopify's use of artificial-intelligence chatbots for "conversational commerce" has made the company uniquely positioned to benefit, with new integrations with Google and OpenAI expected to open new channels and attract users.

Shopify is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter earnings before the opening bell, with analysts expecting earnings of 51 cents per share on revenue of $3.59 billion. The company recently reported that its merchants achieved $14.6 billion in sales over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend.