Why Citigroup Analysts See Double-Digit Upside in Coinbase Stock

Most investors would agree that today’s stock market is dominated by risk-on sentiment, with the S&P 500 reaching new all-time highs largely due to the strong performance of a few leading technology stocks. There is nothing wrong with this situation, but it does raise a few flags for active investors moving forward, flags that represent additional profit potential.

Since this risk-on outlook mainly reflects the collective mindset rather than a specific quantitative measure, investors anticipate a spill-over effect from stocks to other speculative sectors. That's where Bitcoin's role becomes important as the top speculative asset in cryptocurrency, frequently hitting and maintaining near new all-time highs.

However, Bitcoin's upward trend has not been without a few bumps of volatility, which is why investors might expect better financial performance from companies involved with Bitcoin as trading and transaction fees are likely to increase.

For this reason, investors can make sense of a renewed upside potential in shares of Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN).

An Earnings Dip Has Run Its Course for Coinbase

Shares of Coinbase took a 15% dip during the week the company’s quarterly earnings were reported, and that’s a reaction not many had been expecting, considering the high price of Bitcoin right now and its popularity within the trading platform.

However, cooler heads prevailed after the dip had settled, as some in the market realized that not even at its 52-week high did the Coinbase stock price reach its full earnings growth potential. Now that it has fallen to only 71% of its 52-week high, Coinbase could become a major dip-buying opportunity.

Understanding Wall Street's perspective on companies is crucial because there is a very specific and important relationship between valuation multiples and earnings growth. This key ratio is called the price-to-earnings growth ratio (PEG), and it measures whether future earnings growth is already factored into the price.

Seeing that Coinbase could deliver $2.02 in earnings per share (EPS) for the second quarter of 2026, a massive jump compared to today’s reported $0.12 in EPS, this much earnings growth is going to take an equally high valuation multiple to be considered priced in.

That doesn’t seem to be the case today for Coinbase, as its forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 50.6x (while still high) does not at all reflect this much EPS growth for the future, which is why investors will see a PEG ratio of only 0.5x today. Any measure below 1.0x for a PEG directly suggests that growth is not priced into the stock’s valuation.

Living and breathing these sorts of indicators and language, Wall Street analysts had no choice but to step in and give the broader market a more useful point of view for Coinbase stock outside of its recently bearish price action, and that is one solid piece of data that investors can take home as well.

Where Wall Street Sees Coinbase Stock Headed

Wall Street analysts will not often boost a stock’s rating or valuation targets during such a bearish price action as seen in Coinbase stock, so any positive reinforcement means a lot more during these times. When it comes to Coinbase, here is where analysts see the stock reaching up to:

Coinbase still has a Hold consensus rating, but a bullish call from Citigroup analyst Peter Christiansen has drawn attention. He upgraded the stock to Buy and raised his price target from $270 to $505—a significant shift. With shares trading near recent lows, the new target suggests meaningful upside for investors.

In fact, this opinion implies that Coinbase stock should rally by roughly 60% from where it has fallen to today, giving investors a reason to look deeper into it. Of course, this future EPS growth is at the helm of delivering on this promise, but now investors need to go back full circle.

Coinbase’s earnings are likely to grow as long as the market stays in risk-on mode, keeping interest in Bitcoin high. That would support trading volumes and transaction fees, helping justify Wall Street’s current forecasts for EPS and valuation.

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The article "Why Citigroup Analysts See Double-Digit Upside in Coinbase Stock" first appeared on MarketBeat.