What happened
Shares of Silvergate Capital (SI 9.76%), a company that provides banking services in the cryptocurrency space, were gaining ground on Thursday, up 6% as of noon ET. For context, the stock dropped sharply two days ago when financial results came up short of expectations. But yesterday, it bounced back some, a trend that continues today thanks to some analyst upgrades.
So what
To be clear, many of the analyst upgrades came during yesterday's session. However, after the market closed yesterday, news broke that Goldman Sachs analyst Will Nance upgraded his rating to buy. However, it should be noted that Nance simultaneously lowered Silvergate Capital's price target from $190 per share to $166 per share, according to The Fly.
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The stock market is higher today, as are a number of cryptocurrencies, so this is likely helping Silvergate Capital stock as well today. Typically, stocks fall when analysts lower their price targets, regardless of whether they say "buy" or "sell." But generally optimistic investor sentiment today is helping Silvergate Capital stock buck the tendency of falling with a lower price target.
Now what
Silvergate Capital benefits from cryptocurrency volatility, so it wasn't surprising to see a slight dip in net income from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, reported on Tuesday. This dip is what the market negatively reacted to a couple of days ago. However, other fundamental business items -- like its customer count and average deposit per customer -- increased sequentially. These kind of things are more fundamental to the health of Silvergate's business and will have a greater bearing on the stock's long-term potential than a short-term factor like recent analyst ratings.
