Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) delivered second-quarter results that blew past Wall Street expectations, sending its stock soaring 26% in premarket trading. Yet the real story may be what happened before the print: some of the world’s largest institutional investors had been aggressively building positions, positioning themselves ahead of the surge.
For the quarter ended June 30, revenue jumped 34% year-over-year to $3.58 billion, comfortably above the $3.45 billion analyst consensus. Adjusted earnings per share reached $0.42, topping the $0.40 estimate. Gross merchandise volume climbed 32% to $115.6 billion, while free cash flow came in at $654 million — an 18% margin — compared with $422 million a year earlier.
President Harley Finkelstein called it a “monster quarter,” noting that GMV, revenue, gross profit, and free cash flow all expanded more than 30%. He stressed that artificial intelligence is widening what the platform can offer to every merchant. Chief Financial Officer Jeff Hoffmeister added that the GMV acceleration built on an already strong second quarter last year, with solid growth across all merchant sizes, channels, and geographies, and that operating leverage continued to flow through to the 18% free cash flow margin.
Breaking down the revenue mix, merchant solutions revenue surged 37% to $2.78 billion, while subscription solutions revenue grew 22% to $802 million. Operating income jumped 68% to $488 million, underscoring how the company’s scale is rapidly converting into profitability.
Looking ahead, Shopify guided for third-quarter revenue growth in the low-thirties percentage range year-over-year. Gross profit dollars are expected to grow at a mid-to-high twenties rate, with the midpoint of 27.5% coming in slightly below the second quarter’s 31% pace. Free cash flow margin is projected to land in the high-teens to low-twenties range.
What truly ignited market enthusiasm, however, was the disclosure that major funds had been loading up on the stock well before the results hit. New ownership data reveals that Capital International Investors boosted its position by more than 30%, adding over 11.7 million shares to become Shopify’s largest disclosed institutional holder. Capital Research Global Investors went even further, expanding its stake by more than 500%. National Bank of Canada lifted its holding by 36%, while T. Rowe Price and Norges Bank Investment Management also added to their positions.
On the other side, some profit-taking emerged: Capital World Investors trimmed its stake by nearly 30%, and Baillie Gifford, Jennison Associates, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management scaled back. Yet the broader picture clearly tilted toward accumulation, with the wave of institutional buying aligning almost perfectly with the business’s accelerating momentum.
That momentum has been building for some time. In the first quarter of 2026, Shopify processed $101 billion in GMV, up 35% year-over-year, marking a second consecutive quarter above the $100 billion threshold. Revenue reached $3.2 billion with a 15% free cash flow margin. The company has now strung together four straight quarters of revenue and GMV growth above 30%, all while sustaining mid-to-high teens free cash flow margins. During that same period, AI-driven traffic to merchant stores surged eightfold year-over-year, and orders originating from AI-powered searches jumped nearly 13 times.
