Overview
- Clear Street raised Circle to Buy with a $136 target, sparking a roughly 7–9% jump Monday to about $124–126 and extending a rally that has more than doubled the stock from February lows.
- Follow-on calls lifted sentiment further, with Baird boosting its target to $138, Mizuho moving to $120, and Bernstein reiterating Outperform with a $190 target, while shares traded as high as $134.83 on Tuesday.
- USDC circulation is reported at a post-January rebound, cited as averaging about $75.2 billion through March 15 and at a record near $79 billion in other notes, with data also showing USDC’s adjusted on-chain share surpassing Tether to roughly 64%.
- Circle’s late-February quarter topped estimates at $0.43 EPS on $770 million revenue, underscoring a model leveraged to reserve income that scales with USDC float and short-term rates.
- Insider sales totaling about 493,056 shares (~$47.46 million) and ongoing regulatory review remain watch points, as analysts flag the negotiated CLARITY Act as a potential summer catalyst rather than a certainty.