#Square shares took a brief hit Monday after noted short seller Andrew Left of Citron Research said interest over its recently introduced bitcoin trading product was exaggerated, according to CNBC. The app lets customers trade BTC from their mobile payment app almost instantaneously, which is an attractive feature for traders.
Citron: Wall Street ‘Drunk On Bitcoin Nonsense’
In a Monday afternoon tweet, Citron said Square is a “collection of yawn businesses,” adding “WallSt. drunk on Bitcoin nonsense. SQ-Cash to BTC trading has been insignificant. Even w/ hyper growth still 40% too rich.” Citron also set a short-term price target of $30 on the stock, or 36.9 percent below Friday’s close.
Square’s stock briefly lost 3.8% as the price fell to $45.76 before recovering much of the loss to close only 0.48% lower. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shares remain little changed since Square, run by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, launched bitcoin trading in January for most of its Cash mobile payments app users.
Also read: Bitcoin helps Square’s stock bounce
Analyst: Bitcoin’s Good For Square
Dorsey is a bitcoin bull who believes it will surpass fiat money and emerge as the “single currency” of the world and internet over the course of the next decade.
Dan Dolev, Nomura Instinet research analyst, reiterated his position that bitcoin’s impact will be “material” in the long run. Square got a boost a week and a half ago when Wall Street analysts said BTC trading would bolster the company’s quarterly results.
Dolev raised his price for Square to $65 on April 18, believing that launching bitcoin trading could contribute 10 percent to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Dolev expected Square could experience a “sizeable boost” to its top-line and bottom-line results in the current quarter, which the company reports on May 2. He said between 2% and 6% of Square Cash customers trade BTC, which could bolster Square’s adjusted revenue by as much as 3%.
Left in December said he believed the Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTC: GBTC) represented one of the easiest — and most profitable — short opportunities, regardless of what happens to the bitcoin price.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
No comments:
Post a Comment