(Reuters) – Robinhood Markets shares climbed almost 13% in premarket buying and selling on Thursday after the brokerage reported robust development in property beneath custody for the month of February, signaling continued enhance from a comeback in cryptocurrency and inventory buying and selling.
Property beneath custody (AUC) grew 16% month-over-month to $118.7 billion on the finish of February, the corporate’s second consecutive month of breaching the $100 billion mark.
The Menlo Park, California-based firm had reported $102.6 billion in AUC for the fourth-quarter ended Dec. 31, its highest for the reason that meme inventory buying and selling frenzy in 2021.
Bernstein on Thursday started protection on Robinhood with an “outperform” ranking on expectation that the corporate’s cryptocurrency income would develop nine-fold in 2025, and added that its “full suite crypto providing inside a regulated dealer platform is in a candy spot.”
Bernstein expects whole market worth of the cryptocurrency trade to succeed in $7.5 trillion in 2025 from about $2.6 trillion at the moment.
The brokerage mentioned Robinhood had a bonus over different crypto exchanges reminiscent of Coinbase as a result of aggressive charges, and as conventional brokers keep away from providing crypto buying and selling providers.
In mid-February, Robinhood reported a shock quarterly revenue and mentioned it goals to ship ‘worthwhile development’ in 2024.
Robinhood has benefited from the elevated exercise from retail merchants – its foremost consumer base – as bitcoin surpassed the document excessive of 2021 and climbed above $73,000, and the S&P 500 hit a collection of all-time highs this yr.
It has been contending with a decline in lively customers on its platform in latest quarters, however has managed to develop income per buyer.
Robinhood shares closed at a greater than 2-year excessive on Wednesday, however stays effectively under the $38 they had been priced at within the firm’s July 2021 IPO.
(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Modifying by Shailesh Kuber)
