Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) is among the best debt-free stocks to buy now, with renewed analyst optimism after a recent sharp pullback. According to a January 8 report from The Fly, BofA upgraded the stock’s rating to Buy from Neutral and maintained its price target of $340.
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While BofA acknowledged the 40% decline in the stock since its July all-time high, it believes the pullback was driven by a crypto-led correction and is unrelated to underlying fundamentals or company-specific issues. Rather, the report highlighted the expansion of the total addressable market and a faster pace of feature rollouts (product velocity), indicating that the company continued to strengthen its strategic positioning amid volatility.
The firm also highlighted Coinbase’s recent expansion into stock and ETF trading and its entry into prediction markets. With this, the company should be able to broaden the platform beyond pure crypto trading. BofA viewed this as supportive of management’s push toward becoming an “everything exchange” and an opportunity to cross-sell additional products to its existing user base.
On the flip side, in a note published around the same time, Barclays maintained its cautious stance on the stock, assigning an Equal Weight rating and reducing its price target from $291 to $258. Barclays is pencilling in several headwinds in its Q4 model, including lower trading volumes, slower USDC growth, and continued volatility in crypto asset prices.
The company is scheduled to report Q4 results in the third week of February, and it seems like a lot is riding on that. However, the overall consensus appears favorable, with just under two-thirds of analysts covering it rating it Buy and estimating a 1-year upside of nearly 55%.
While we acknowledge the potential of COIN as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you’re looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
