Crypto surge leads to Coinbase upgrade at Goldman Sachs

Coinbase (COIN) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs, which also raised its price target on the stock to $282 from $170. The firm cited the recent rise in crypto prices as a reason for the upgrade, citing specifically the surge in bitcoin (BTC-USD), which briefly topped $70,000 on Friday.

Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton discuss the upgrade in the video above.

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Editor’s note: This article was written by Stephanie Mikulich

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: We are also watching Coinbase. Goldman Sachs calling time on its bearish stance on Coinbase, upgrading it from a sell to a neutral. And the call coming amid Bitcoin’s big rally. The cryptocurrency briefly touching 70,000 today before coming back down. $282 is the target price here now from Goldman on this name here. And basically, it does have to do with what’s going on with crypto prices here.

And they basically thought that crypto would not do as well as it has. And the fact that it has is getting them to revisit this now. They have had the sell on the stock, going all the way back to 2022. So they actually did capture some of the downside there. And it’s been kind of bumping along, but since then has rallied. So now they’re coming out. Again, you could call it maybe a little bit of a late call, like the GE one, after some of the rallies already occurred.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah, another headline here, by the way with Coinbase climbing back above its direct listing price today. So that’s the first time in more than two years. Of course, went public in a direct listing in 2021. Lots of enthusiasm. Stock hits around 380. And then the stock, of course, was under pressure. You had the crypto winter in 2022. It gets hammered. Of course, last year as we know. And did very different story tip about it. I think what, 300% in the past 12 months.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.