Chicago, IL – March 13, 2024 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: NVIDIA Corp. NVDA, Coinbase Global Inc. COIN, Block Inc. SQ, CleanSpark Inc. CLSK and Iris Energy Ltd. IREN.
Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:
5 Crypto-Centric Stocks to Gain Big on Bitcoin Rally
On March 11, Bitcoin (BTC) achieved a milestone trading above 72,000 for the first time. Bitcoin recorded its all-time high at 72,841.37. The cryptocurrency market started 2024 on a positive note after an impressive rally last year.
The much-hyped reformation in the cryptocurrency space took place on Jan 10. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved rule changes to allow the creation of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). As many as 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs were launched in January.
After soaring 157% in 2023, Bitcoin has rallied more than 65% year to date. It continues to hold a lot of potential. The SEC's latest decision is likely to turn out to be a landmark, positioning the entire crypto space as an integral component of mainstream finance.
The game-changing decision of the SEC will allow individuals, money managers and other financial institutions to get exposure to the world's largest cryptocurrency without having to own it.
Moreover, the next Bitcoin halving will occur in April 2024. When this occurs, the reward for mining new blocks is halved, making it more challenging for miners to earn net Bitcoins. Historically, this event has led to increased scarcity and has driven up the value of Bitcoin due to reduced supply.
Optimistic Estimates
Several research firms have said that this is just the beginning of the Bitcoin rally. Standard Chartered expects Bitcoin will reach $100,000 by the end of 2024. Research firm Fundstrat has provided a target range of $116,000 to $137,000 for this year. Hedge fund SkyBridge predicts $170,000 by April 2025.
Furthermore, VanEck estimated a medium-term target of $350,000 for Bitcoin. Connors's firm has estimated that in base-case, Bitcoin will reach $110,000 in 2024 and $140,000 the next year. However, according to the firm's best-case scenario, the cryptocurrency will hit $180,000 in 2024 and $450,000 in 2025.
Stocks in Focus
We have narrowed our search to five crypto-oriented stocks that have strong potential for 2024. Each of our picks carries either a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2(Buy) or 3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
NVIDIA Corp. is a semiconductor industry giant and one of the biggest success stories of 2023. As a leading designer of graphic processing units (GPUs), the NVDA stock usually soars on a booming crypto market. This is because GPUs are pivotal to data centers, artificial intelligence, and the creation of crypto assets.
Zacks Rank #1 NVIDIA's expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 79.2% (ending January 2025). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current-year earnings has improved 15.3% over the past 30 days.
Coinbase Global Inc. provides financial infrastructure and technology for the crypto economy in the United States and internationally. COIN offers the primary financial account in the crypto space for consumers, a marketplace with a pool of liquidity for transacting in crypto assets for institutions; and technology and services that enable developers to build crypto-based applications and securely accept crypto assets as payment.
Zacks Rank #1 Coinbase Global has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved more than 100% over the past 30 days.
Block Inc. is an online digital and mobile payment platform for consumers and merchants and is the parent company of Square and Cash App. The users of the Cash App can buy, sell, send and receive Bitcoin. In addition, SQ's decentralized tbd platform allows developers to build decentralized finance applications that run on programmable blockchains. SQ is also one of the largest Bitcoin investors.
Zacks Rank #1 Block has an expected earnings growth rate of 63.9% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 1% over the past 60 days.
CleanSpark Inc. operates as a Bitcoin miner in the Americas. CLSK owns and operates data centers that primarily run on low-carbon power. CLSK's infrastructure supports Bitcoin, a digital commodity and a tool for financial independence and inclusion.
Zacks Rank #2 CleanSpark has an expected earnings growth rate of 89.2% for the current year (ending September 2024). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved more than 100% over the past 30 days.
Iris Energy Ltd. is a Bitcoin mining company. IREN builds, owns and operates data center infrastructure with a focus on entry into regions where it can access abundant and/or under-utilized renewable energy to power its operations.
Zacks Rank #3 IREN has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year (ending June 2024). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved more than 100% over the past 30 days.
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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
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