Key Takeaways

Shares of Block rose Thursday morning, offering a bit of relief after a recent decline that yesterday’s tech selloff extended, as Oppenheimer analysts turned bullish on the stock.

Block’s ( SQ ) shares were recently up about 1%, after rising as much as 5% in the opening minutes of trading. They’d fallen more dramatically yesterday, extending a pullback from early December highs after a steady climb from summer levels.

Today’s driver: an upgrade from Oppenheimer, which boosted its rating to “outperform” from “perform” and set a $115 price target that is about 16% higher than the Visible Alpha average near $99.

The analysts cited the expectation of payment value growth at its Square business, an upbeat outlook for profit margins, and its bitcoin mining business as tailwinds for the shares.

“In 2025, we believe Block could potentially take a bigger bet on bitcoin fueled by [chairman and cofounder] Jack Dorsey’s enthusiasm for the cryptocurrency, as well as President-elect Trump’s procrypto administration,” the analysts wrote.

The upgrade was part of Oppenheimer’s broader outlook on fintech shares for next year. The analysts named Visa ( V) , MasterCard ( MA ) and payments processing firm Shift4 ( FOUR ) as their other top fintech picks for the year ahead.

"Recent improvements in consumer spending and potential for additional rate cuts suggest Fintech companies should maintain healthy growth in 2025," Oppenheimer wrote.

Read the original article on Investopedia