What happened
On Wednesday, for the second day in a row, customer relationship-management (CRM) specialist HubSpot's (HUBS 4.64%) stock price notched a fresh all-time high, rising by nearly 4% across the day. On the back of announcements made at the company's latest analyst day, a clutch of analysts raised their price targets on HubSpot shares.
So what
The big, market-moving announcement was that HubSpot is launching HubSpot Payments. As the name implies, this is a proprietary, digital "end-to-end" payment solution built into the HubSpot ecosystem.
At least several of the analysts raising their price targets took pains to mention HubSpot Payments in their latest research notes.
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One was Needham & Company prognosticator Ryan McDonald, who kept his buy recommendation while significantly raising his price target on the tech stock to $870 from the previous $680.
"While the [business-to-business] commerce/payments ecosystem is becoming increasingly competitive, we view this as a natural extension of the [HubSpot] platform and a material cash-generative revenue opportunity over time," he wrote of HubSpot Payments in a new research note.
Other features introduced at the HubSpot analyst day also impressed professionals tracking the stock. For instance, Mizuho analyst Siti Panigrahi added $100 to his price target, to $760, maintaining his buy recommendation.
Panigrahi wrote that, "We applaud HubSpot's rapidly growing larger-market opportunity (launched Payments and Operations Hub for Enterprise) as the company expands from leadership in marketing automation for [small and mid-sized businesses] to overall Small Business & Mid-Market CRM leadership, along with increased enterprise penetration."
Now what
On the back of torrid growth and a solid business strategy, HubSpot's shares already doubled and then some before this new burst of extreme optimism. The company's stock is expensive both in terms of price and key valuations, but this might not matter. After all, with the latest announcements, it seems well-positioned for even further growth and -- eventually -- strong profitability down the road.
