Based in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify provides a cloud-based commerce platform for small and medium-sized businesses. The company's software provides customers with a single view of multiple sales channels, including web-based and mobile online platforms, physical retail locations, social media storefronts, marketplaces, and other venues.

The major indices are slightly higher at midday. Inflation ticked up in October. CPI printed at 2.6%, matching the Argus forecast, up from 2.4% the month before. Core CPI remained at 3.3%. Shelter, which includes rents and other housing-related costs, and food again are the culprits for the overall rise in prices. The market still seems to be pricing in a Fed rate cut in December. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is flat at 4.43%. Oil is flat at $68 per barrel. Bitcoin continues in rally mode, topping $93,000.

Shopify offers an e-commerce platform primarily to small and medium-size businesses. The firm has two segments. The subscription solutions segment allows Shopify merchants to conduct e-commerce on a variety of platforms, including the company’s website, physical stores, pop-up stores, kiosks, social networks (Facebook), and Amazon. The merchant solutions segment offers add-on products for the platform that facilitate e-commerce and include Shopify Payments, Shopify Shipping, and Shopify Capital.

Vickers Stock Research, a subsidiary of Argus Research Group, analyzes insider trading and institutional stock ownership. Form 13Fs, which institutions must file to report their holdings, are due 45 days after the end of calendar quarters and have come in for 2Q24. We review 13Fs of major institutional investors, including activists, to see what they are buying and to look for trends. Activist investing is now less about generating a short-term return and more about achieving long-term returns through an active management/investor partnership. The stock-market volatility during 2Q gave those institutional investors a chance to buy a dip. Taking a look at the 13Fs from well-known institutional portfolios, we see that the big guns were busy, either adding new holdings or increasing existing holdings. Buying was across a variety of sectors. Based on Vickers data, the following are select purchases made in 2Q by some high-profile money managers. We also list one significant sale (of Apple by Berkshire) and also note if the holding is now 4% or more of the total portfolio.