Barclays downgraded COIN to "underweight," but hiked its price target
Barclays downgraded Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) to "underweight" from "equal weight," urging investors to sell the crypto platform before its Aug. 7 earnings report. However, the analyst did raise its price target on COIN to $70 from $61. At last glance, the shares are 1.5% lower at $84.69 before the bell.
The bear note's lofty price-target hike still implies a roughly 18.5% downside for Coinbase stock, which isn't such a big deal when you take into account its 142.9% year-to-date lead. On the charts, the equity touched a new 2023 high of $92.15 on July 11, helping it to start off the new quarter with a 20.1% gain.
Coming into today, 15 of 22 covering brokerages rated COIN a "hold" or worse 20 covering the stock, while the 12-month consensus target price of $71.57 is a 15.8% discount to last night's close. Elsewhere, short interest is up 7% over the last two weeks, and the 38.26 shares sold short account for 21.4% of the stock's available float.
Coinbase stock's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 1.13 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) ranks higher than 98% of readings from the past year. This implies options traders favored bullish bets over the last 10 weeks.