Shopify's shares tumble on weak outlook after a very strong start to 2024

Shares of Shopify plunged Wednesday after the Canadian company that helps retailers with online sales warned of easing revenue growth and thinner margins in the current quarter.

That caught a lot of investors off guard after the company rebounded strongly from the pandemic and started 2024 with a bang.

Shopify Inc. predicts that revenue will climb by a high-teens percentage rate for the second quarter, well below the 23% jump in the first quarter.

The e-commerce company anticipates quarterly gross margin will decrease by about 50 basis points compared with the first quarter, when that measured 51.4%.

Shares slid 19.5% in afternoon trading, a bit of a recovery after having been down more than 21% earlier.

For the first quarter, Shopify reported an adjusted profit of 20 cents per share on revenue of $1.86 billion. Analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research expected a profit of 16 cents per share on revenue of $1.84 billion.