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NEW YORK, United States — Etsy Inc. rose the most in a year after Citigroup Inc. analyst Mark Kelley recommended the stock with a target price of $14 a share, saying the e-commerce company has developed a strong brand for its quirky products. Etsy, which has struggled to compete with industry giants like Amazon.com Inc., will report earnings after market Tuesday.
Kelley said Etsy’s quirky, hand-crafted items put the company in a separate category with “little evidence to suggest” those products are a priority for larger online marketplaces such as Amazon and EBay Inc.
“We have confidence in the stickiness of the seller-base despite the fact roughly half of them sell via other channels,” Kelley wrote Monday in a note initiating coverage of the company. “We also believe Etsy has built a fairly well-established brand when it comes to creating a marketplace where people can find truly unique items.”
Etsy rose 17 percent to $11.79 at 2:04 p.m. in New York after earlier reaching $12 for the company’s biggest intraday climb since July 2015. The Brooklyn, New York-based company gained 22 percent this year through Friday’s close.
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In the first quarter, Etsy posted its first quarterly profit since becoming a public company in April 2015, but the stock soon fell as investors began to question its long-term strategy. Etsy took another hit last month when customers encountered glitches with its third-party payment system.
James Cakmak, an analyst with Monness Crespi Hardt & Co., expressed optimism about the company in a note July 28, while maintaining his rating equivalent of a hold. Cakmak said integration with PayPal Holdings Inc. and increased overseas efforts will contribute to its growth.
“We are increasingly becoming constructive on Etsy’s quality of execution,” Cakmak said.
By Nicole Piper; editors: Jillian Ward, Andrew Pollack and Molly Schuetz.
