ecommerce company declined to give annual outlook and will stop providing customer count while firstquarter guidance suggests continuing struggle for profit as revenue growth slows shopify inc shares suffered one of their worst days on record thursday after financial results failed to provide much clarity about the road ahead in 2023 shopify shopt which acts as the bones of many ecommerce websites and operations disappointed with firstquarter guidance in a report wednesday afternoon and executives declined to provide any forecast beyond the current period the stock fell 159 thursday its thirdworst session on record and worst in exactly a year  shares fell 16 on feb 16 2022 after executives admitted that growth would slow down last year the global pandemic accelerated shopifys business through 2020 and 2021 leading the stock to more than quintuple from its march 2020 lows at its peak in late 2021 those gains were wiped out in 2022 however and yeartodate gains of more than 50 were sliced roughly in half thursday with the stock now up 294 on the year while shopify easily cleared expectations for the holiday quarter in wednesdays report the forecast left a lot to be desired specifically analysts were concerned about the lack of clear guidance on firstquarter operating profit though the information executives did provide suggested an operating loss even on an adjusted basis despite recently announced price increases firstquarter guidance implies adj op income will be negative even as rev growth slows ubs analysts wrote while questioning whether the price increases will help out in the second quarter and maintaining a sell rating and 32 price target 2q could benefit from higher subs revs with very high incremental margins but on our callback management was clear they dont have a view on the impact as merchants could switch to annual plans or transition to plus or switch to other platforms there was also a problem with what management said it would not provide they declined to give a fullyear forecast and said they would no longer report a merchant count an important metric showing how many customers the company has unfortunately investors should not expect incremental transparency going forward as shopify will no longer disclose merchant count even as international growth becomes increasingly important moffetnathanson analysts wrote many investors had been expecting more explicit fy23 guidecommentary on operating income profitability which we didnt get barclays analysts noted still the report didnt seem to change wall street analysts bullishness on shopifys longterm prospects in fact three analysts upgraded the stock thursday morning while only one issued a downgrade and 21 of the 48 analysts tracked by factset raised their price targets in reaction to the report while only two issued a smaller target with estimates for 2023 likely coming down the macro potentially not being as bad as feared a few months ago and shopify showing good traction with key growth initiatives we like the setup for 2023 william blair analysts wrote while maintaining an outperform rating and the stock likely pulling back materially on thursday  should create a good buying opportunity although we expect shares to remain volatile in the near term driven by macro concerns we see the potential for shares to rerate materially higher longer term as investors gain more clarity and comfort around shopifys growth and profitability trajectory after those expectations rebase in the coming daysweeks we think investors may realize theres a lot to like going forward the barclays analysts wrote while raising their price target to 40 from 30 but there are still many challenges ahead including growing competition from amazoncom incamzn management might look for cooperation instead of competition though as multiple analysts wrote that executives told them shopify is looking to partner with amazon and integrate buy with prime into its own services see also amazon is challenging shopify and shopifys stock is losing so far management commented that it is in talks with amazon  about buy with prime integration although it did not provide much detail william blair analysts wrote while barclays analysts wrote that amazonbuywithprime integration negotiations are still ongoing which may remain an overhang in the end analysts seemed content with the longterm trajectory but concerned about the nearterm results in theory shopify has the wind in its sails as the democratizing force of internet entrepreneurship in a world increasingly transacting online in practice the opportunities are offset by nearterm questions on margins buy with prime merchant growth capital intensity and the expense headwinds of shopify fulfillment network moffetnathanson analysts wrote while raising their price target to 32 from 30 and maintaining a market perform rating after thursday mornings notes 20 analysts had the equivalent of a buy rating on shopify stock while 25 called it a hold and three rated the stock a sell or equivalent according to factset the average price target was 4765 for more shopify on black friday chaching