Latest news with #AndrewBauch
CNBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Wells Fargo calls this e-commerce stock an 'under-the-radar' AI story
Investors should pick up shares of Shopify as the company continues to innovate in an increasingly AI-powered e-commerce industry, according to Wells Fargo. Analyst Andrew Bauch reiterated his overweight rating on Shopify shares and lifted his price target by $18 to $125, which suggests the stock has about 19% upside ahead. Bauch said Shopify has a strong product portfolio and strategic partnerships in artifical intelligence that will allow it to capture similar market share in "agentic" commerce as it does in traditional U.S. e-commerce. Agentic commerce refers to AI agents acting on behalf of the customer or business in e-commerce transactions such as managing inventory, giving customized recommendations and executing payments and other tasks. "While not typically perceived as an AI play, we believe Shopify's AI efforts are differentiated and can serve as another important growth & efficiency driver for years to come," Bauch wrote in a Friday note to clients, calling the stock an "under-the-radar AI story." "Overall, we see AI as an important piece to the Shopify story, and see the business as well-positioned to ride the wave, rather than getting knocked off course. We're taking our growth and margin estimates up modestly on alleviating tariff risks, and the multiple higher on AI confidence," he added. Shares of Shopify are up nearly 3% this year. The stock took a hit in early May after it reported mixed first-quarter results and issued a weak forecast for the current period. However, shares have jumped roughly 17% over the past month following an announcement that Shopify would be included in the Nasdaq 100 index. SHOP 1Y mountain Shopify stock over the past year. According to Bauch, Shopify can be seen as a "thematic AI story" given that its employees leverage AI internally, it offers differentiated AI-powered merchant solutions and is growing partnerships with leading AI companies such as OpenAI, Meta and Perplexity. Shopify and Meta share a longstanding partnership that allows Shopify retailers to sync their products to a catalog on Meta's Facebook and Instagram platforms, therefore growing their reach and sales opportunities. Shopify merchants can also use Meta's advertising tools to target ads and track their customers. In addition, AI-powered search engine Perplexity last year announced it will use Shopify technology for its AI-powered shopping tool called "Shop like a Pro." "While some may perceive the AI wave as a threat, we see layers of opportunity via use cases, efficiencies, and adoption," Bauch said. The analyst projected a $50 billion dollar gross merchandise value, or GMV, opportunity for agentic commerce by 2030, with roughly 30% growth annually between now and then. That, he said, is similar to the early days of e-commerce.
CNBC
29-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Stablecoins are reaching an inflection point. Wells Fargo says these stocks could be affected
Crypto's stablecoin sector is becoming increasingly attractive to traditional financial services players, something that could have big implications for payments stocks, according to Wells Fargo. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose values are pegged to that of another asset, usually the dollar. They are designed to bring the stability of traditional currencies to blockchain networks (praised for the speed and efficiency they provide money transfers). Traditionally used as bridge currencies for crypto traders, banks and payment firms are becoming interested in them as the Trump administration rolls back restrictive Biden-era crypto policies and Congress makes progress on passing stablecoin legislation by August. "Ultimately, the momentum around stablecoins has reached must-monitor levels , both quantitatively (evidenced by market caps of leading stablecoins) and qualitatively ( crypto-friendly rhetoric from Washington )," Wells Fargo analysts led by Andrew Bauch said in a note Thursday. The market cap for stablecoins has grown 16% this year and 43% in the past year, according to CryptoQuant. Tether's USDT dominates the market by 67.5%, followed by Circle's USDC , which makes up about 27% of the market. "We see a healthy balance of threat and opportunity, with more significant implications for commercial cross-border & B2B rather than domestic consumer payments," the note said. "While everyday adoption for consumers is likely a decade away, the advantages of stablecoins seem clear." Specifically, they highlighted: Instantaneous authorization, clearing & settlement, reduced funding costs, and arguably most importantly; and open interoperability for smart contracts. Here are five stocks that most need or are likely to strategize around stablecoins, per Wells Fargo: Mastercard has built tools powered by stablecoins and formed partnerships with the popular Ethereum wallet MetaMask as well as the major crypto exchanges Kraken and Binance. That's all part of an effort to bring consumers into the stablecoin ecosystem by letting them spend them using traditional cards. PayPal was at the forefront of stablecoin enablement when it launched PayPal USD (PYUSD) in 2023 . Although the coin makes up less than 1% of the stablecoin market, PayPal recently took measures , both internally and in its partnership with Coinbase , to increase the coin's use and boost on-chain payment opportunities for consumers and institutional users. The most obvious use cases for stablecoins include peer-to-peer payments, business-to-business payments and cross-border payments and remittances, according to Well Fargo. Global cross-border revenue was roughly $44 trillion in 2023, according to McKinsey. Commercial payments accounted for about $33 trillion of that versus about $11 trillion in consumer payments, predominately remittances and cross-border commerce payments.
