Cash News
President-elect Donald Trump’s second term could spell big gains for Robinhood , according to Bernstein. Analyst Gautam Chhugani, who has an outperform rating on the stock, increased his price target by $21 to $51 and named it his top “crypto deregulation” trade. That implies more than 44% upside from here, as of Tuesday’s close. This comes as the stock has already had a massive year, up more than 196% in that time and more than 90% over the past three months. That comes as bitcoin skyrockets to record levels. On Wednesday, it scaled above $94,000 for the first time. HOOD YTD mountain HOOD, year-to-date Looking ahead to next year, Chhugani anticipates the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will become “pro-crypto” with Trump in office, as the former president has vowed to do things such as develop a strategic national bitcoin stockpile and replace SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “HOOD has so far operated a regulatory-constrained crypto business — barely listed 15 tokens (vs. more than 250 on Coinbase), made no revenue from staking, lending, derivatives or stablecoins — offered by competing exchanges,” he said in a Wednesday note to clients. “But under a potentially new pro-crypto SEC, this looks set to change, and we expect HOOD to be the biggest beneficiary of crypto regulatory tailwinds.” Specifically, Chhugani expects “clear” rule-making on digital asset classification under the new administration, which he said would allow Robinhood to engage in both digital commodities and digital securities. He noted that the financial services platform has already listed four more tokens following Trump’s White House victory. Oppenheimer also holds a similarly bullish view on the space. While Trump has yet to name his pick for the new SEC chair, the firm believes Teresa Goody Guillén, a partner at law firm BakerHostetler and former SEC attorney, could be a “dark horse.” “We believe the ultimate choice for the SEC Chair will rest on how big of a problem President-elect Trump sees in the SEC, and how much change he intends to make,” analyst Owen Lau said. “Based on the names being floated around, we believe the setup is favorable to crypto (e.g. COIN) and exchanges (e.g. NDAQ, ICE and CBOE) under our coverage.” Wall Street is split on the name. Among the 17 analysts covering Robinhood, nine have a strong buy or buy rating, according to LSEG data. On the other hand, seven have taken a neutral stance with a hold rating and one has an underperform rating. It also has an average target of $29.12, which reflects more than 17% downside from Tuesday’s close.