Coinbase Global ‘unique’ stock in crypto economy: MoffettNathanson’s Ellis (NASDAQ:COIN)

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Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) doesn’t require an investor to bet on any particular application of crypto, MoffettNathanson analyst Lisa Ellis said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. She has a Street high price target of $600 on the stock, twice that of the $300 average.

Because the company provides the infrastructure layer for the crypto economy, “you don’t have to believe in any particular application in crypto — it can be trading and investment, it can be payments, it can be NFTs, it can be cross-border transactions — if you believe in the future of the technology, and we do, Coinbase (COIN) is the leading Western, regulated on-ramp and off-ramp into the crypto economy,” she said.

“If you have a multiyear timeframe, this is an extremely unique attractive stock” that’s trading at less than 5x forward revenue, or about half the valuation of a growth stock like Shopify (SHOP), she added. That makes it an “extremely attractive entry point” for stock, she said.

With the crypto pullback in YTD, Ellis doesn’t expect Coinbase (COIN) to gain much in 2022, but it’s poised to rebound in 12 to 24 months, “not too terribly long to be waiting,” Ellis said.

Meanwhile, institutional interest “is only going up,” which should help offset the moderation in interest from retail investors, she said.

On a broader perspective, the analyst favors the payment networks American Express (AXP -2.7%), Mastercard (MA -1.7%), and Visa (V -1.6%). Although Russia will hurt results, as the country accounts for 5-6% of revenue for both Mastercard and Visa, inflation is good for the networks, and they’re still in “recovery mode from the pandemic.”

“We love the payment networks,” Ellis said, referring to American Express (AXP), Visa (V), and Mastercard (MA). “They’re literally our top three picks.”

On Tuesday, Citi analyst Peter Christiansen trimmed his price target for Coinbase (COIN) as the cryptocurrency exchange plans to ramp up investments this year and next.

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