Shopify drew 10 news stories in the 24 hours to 3 November, against a usual 0.6 a day. The filings show a free-cash-flow margin at the highest level in the company's own record, which sits in tension with the profit figures that drew the negative coverage.
Source: SEC EDGAR XBRL company facts. Latest period shown: FY26 Q3.
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| Period | Revenue growth, TTM YoY | Operating margin (TTM) | FCF margin (TTM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY18 Q4 | 59.4% | -8.6% | -1.7% |
| FY19 Q4 | 47.0% | -8.9% | 0.9% |
| FY20 Q4 | 85.6% | 3.1% | 13.1% |
| FY21 Q4 | 57.4% | 5.8% | 10.5% |
| FY25 Q4 | 30.1% | 12.7% | 17.4% |
| FY26 Q1 | 31.8% | 13.3% | 17.1% |
| FY26 Q2 | 32.5% | 13.9% | 17.7% |
| FY26 Q3 | 32.5% | 14.6% | 18.8% |
Profit is lagging sales
The free-cash-flow margin of 18.8% is above every past quarterly reading in the company's own record, which ran from −1.8% to 18.4%. Each dollar of revenue is leaving more cash than at any prior point in that history.
The operating margin of 14.6% is also above every past reading, which ranged from −8.9% to 13.9%. It rose 2.4 percentage points from a year earlier.
Net income rose 19.4% over the year while free cash flow rose 39.8%. The two measures are moving at different speeds: cash is accelerating faster than the bottom-line profit figure.
Free cash flow rose 39.8% against revenue growth of 32.5%, so each dollar of sales is turning into more cash than a year ago. Operating cash flow grew 39.5% over the same period, and capital spending was only $21.0 million, or 0.1% of revenue.
Profit is lagging sales. Net income rose 19.4% while revenue rose 32.5%, meaning costs are taking a larger share of each dollar of revenue.
The free-cash-flow margin of 18.8% is above every past reading in the company's own record, which ran from −1.8% to 18.4%
The free-cash-flow margin of 18.8% exceeds the prior ceiling of 18.4% from the company's own quarterly record. The operating margin of 14.6% similarly sits above the prior ceiling of 13.9%. Both marks are firsts in the company's filed history.
What Shopify's share price implies against our model
In our model, growth 5 percentage points lower would lower the value by 22.9%, and growth 5 percentage points higher would raise it by 29.3%. A free-cash-flow margin 1 percentage point lower would lower it by 5.1%. The model is more sensitive to growth than to margin, meaning the 32.5% revenue growth rate carries more weight in the valuation than the 18.8% FCF margin.
What the filings cannot tell you at Shopify
Our figures run to Q3 2026, from the company's own filings; they cannot confirm, explain or rule out anything in the reports. The net income figure and the revenue growth rate bear directly on the topic of the coverage, since reports framed the stock decline around profit relative to expectations.