It's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and that means people across the U.S. are looking forward to a day off on Thursday and a weekend shopping frenzy for the remainder of their time off. That translated into fairly quiet trading on Wall Street, and the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) managed to bounce back from recent losses by posting a modest gain of around 0.2% as of 1 p.m. ET.
Many traditional retailers have been under a lot of pressure this week, but in the e-commerce world, things have never looked better for some companies. In particular, shares of Etsy (ETSY 0.28%) and Global-e Online (GLBE -2.08%) were both jumping on Wednesday afternoon, and investors are hoping that what the two companies have done so far is just the beginning of a much longer growth surge. Below, we'll look more at what's making these two stocks move on the day before Thanksgiving.
Etsy gets some Wall Street love
Shares of Etsy were up almost 7% on Wednesday afternoon. The craft and homemade-goods marketplace got favorable views from a couple of Wall Street analysts that helped drive interest in its stock.
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Analysts at Citi were the first to chime in, boosting their price target on Etsy by $75 to $320 per share. Repeating its buy rating on the stock, Citi said that even as shoppers start to change their behavior in light of continued progress in fighting the pandemic, Etsy has been able to generate valuable brand awareness that should serve it well in the coming years. Moreover, Citi is looking for investors to reward Etsy with higher valuations as it demonstrates its ability to keep boosting revenue.
Meanwhile, Wedbush also weighed in with a favorable assessment. Raising its price target by $46 to $310, Wedbush has become increasingly optimistic about Etsy, having given it an outperform rating and raising its price target from $195 to $264 just a month ago. The analysts have strong views for e-commerce generally, and with traditional retailers facing supply chain challenges, the more-organic production from Etsy sellers should give the marketplace an advantage.
Etsy has seen more sellers, greater revenue from advertising, and better delivery performance recently, and all those positive factors are boosting the value of its service. That bodes well for the stock as the holiday season progresses.
Global-e makes a deal
Elsewhere, shares of Global-e Online were up an even more impressive 15%. The e-commerce company made a strategic acquisition that has shareholders excited about its future.
Global-e announced it would purchase Flow Commerce, which specializes in e-commerce software for cross-border transactions from emerging brand-name companies. The company believes that by making the purchase, it will be able to give some small-merchant customers access to Global-e services that they previously couldn't have used. Importantly, the deal could help deepen Global-e's relationship with Shopify (SHOP 0.16%), and Global-e indeed issued a warrant for an additional $70 million investment from Shopify at its discretion.
Global-e will pay $500 million for Flow, half in cash and half in stock. An additional $45 million in potential stock compensation could stem from performance-based warrants, and the companies expect to close the deal in the first quarter of 2022.
Global-e just went public in May, and its stock has been highly volatile. However, with its concentration in a high-growth area that's only now starting to hit its stride, Global-e appears to have plenty of room to keep growing and rewarding shareholders for their patience.
