Here’s What Drove Shopify’s (SHOP) Strong Performance

Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its third-quarter 2025 “Polen International Growth Strategy” investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The strategy returned -4.23% gross and -4.53% net of fees in the quarter, compared to the MSCI ACWI’s (ex-USA) 6.89% gain. The strategy’s concentrated approach to quality investing failed to match the index in the quarter. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2025.

In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, Polen International Growth Strategy highlighted stocks such as Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP). Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) is a commerce technology company that provides a cloud-based platform to start, scale, market, and run a business. The one-month return of Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) was -0.33%, and its shares gained 39.63% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 08, 2025, Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) stock closed at $158.41 per share, with a market capitalization of $206.225 billion.

Polen International Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:

“The top three contributors to the Portfolio’s relative and absolute performance in the quarter were Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP), ASML, and ICON plc. Shopify represented the top contributor to relative and absolute performance in the third quarter of 2025. The company reported very strong results showcasing accelerating revenue and gross merchandise volume growth. The company has made investments in its enterprise business, offline point of sale business, B2B, international growth and AI—all of which continue to drive value for merchants and make the business more durable.”

Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 91 hedge fund portfolios held Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) at the end of the third quarter, compared to 69 in the previous quarter. In Q3 2025, Shopify Inc.’s (NASDAQ:SHOP) revenue increased 32% year-over-year. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) and shared The Brown Capital Management International All-Company Fund’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.