Are Coinbase shares worth buying now?

• Coinbase shares opened 1.6% higher on Monday (16 August 2021)
• The crypto exchange stock closed 2% higher last Friday, after PC chipmaker Intel disclosed it owned Coinbase shares
• COIN spiked up 8% last week following the release of its Q2 2021 results
• Bank of America analysts recently initiated coverage on COIN with a ‘hold’ call
• Interested in trading Coinbase shares? Open an account with us to get started.

COIN stock price: what’s the latest?

US PC chipmaker Intel recently revealed that it owns a small stake in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

Intel stated on Friday that it held 3,014 Coinbase Class A common stocks as at the end of June 2021.

This amounted to just under US$800,000 worth of holdings (or less than 0.005% of Coinbase’s current market cap), based on COIN’s last traded price of US$261.25.

Coinbase shares ended the session nearly 2% higher following the news. Shares are up 1.5% in pre-market trading on Monday.

COIN’s stocks are up 16% in the last one month, moving in tandem with the cryptocurrency market’s recovery.

Nevertheless, the counter still trails its opening price of US$381 on 14 April 2021 by over 30%.

Meanwhile, Intel shares finished flat on Friday, and are down some 3% in the last one month.

Coinbase Q2 results smash analyst estimates

Last Tuesday (10 August), the crypto platform’s shares jumped up 8% after the release of its second quarter results for 2021.

It raked in a revenue of US$2.23 billion for the quarter, beating analyst estimates of US$1.78 billion, as monthly transacting users grew 44% to 8.8 million users.

Earnings per share (EPS) of US$3.45 also came in higher against predictions of US$2.33.

As a result, net profit exploded nearly 4,900% to US$1.6 billion from the same period a year earlier.

Coinbase said trading widened beyond bitcoin into Ethereum and other assets in Q2, with BTC dropping to 24% of total trades, down from 39% in the previous quarter.

Looking ahead, the company expects its trading volume to be lower in the third quarter, reversing the second quarter’s volume gain of 38% over the first quarter.

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How do analysts currently rate COIN?

Meanwhile, analysts polled by Refinitiv expect a full-year EPS of US$7.76 per share alongside a revenue of US$6.29 billion.

In terms of stock price, 12 out of 18 analysts polled also have a rating of ‘buy’, alongside a consensus price target of US$358, which represents a potential 35% upside from COIN’s last traded price.

Bank of America (BofA) initiated coverage on the stock on 13 August with a rating of ‘neutral’ and price target of US$273.

BofA analyst Jason Kupferberg wrote that while Coinbase is aiming to ‘become the Amazon of crypto assets’, he is still waiting for more concrete signs of progress.