Text size
Seemanta Dutta/Dreamstime.com
Coinbase
is one of Oppenheimer’s top picks for the year ahead because of the continued adoption of digital assets by both institutions and retailers.
Analysts at Oppenheimer rate the stock at Outperform with a $444 price target.
The stock rose 2% on Wednesday to $252.01.
Coinbase (ticker: COIN), the cryptocurrency exchange, made its debut in April in a direct listing. Nasdaq had a $250 reference price on the stock.
Oppenheimer analyst Owen Lau predicted more investors will consider digital assets as an option of corporate treasury management.
“For institutional investors who are interested in getting exposure to digital assets,we believe COIN is well-positioned to benefit from it,” the analyst said. “More importantly, we are still in the early innings of this development, and we believe many investors are still on the sidelines.”
On the retail side, Lau said, there will be more options available for consumers to choose digital assets as a form of a payment. “Financial institutions, payment network and merchants will allow consumers to transact in crypto,” he wrote in a note Wednesday.
Nasdaq
(NDAQ) and
S&P Global
(SPGI) also were chosen as Oppenheimer’s top picks for 2022. Oppenheimer rates both Nasdaq and S&P Global at Outperform with price targets of $228 and $537, respectively.
Write to Karishma Vanjani at karishma.vanjani@dowjones.com