Key Takeaways
- Robinhood shares climbed 16.6% on Thursday to $124.72, marking the highest closing price since mid-December.
- Morgan Stanley shifted HOOD to Overweight with a $150 price target; Scotiabank began coverage at Sector Outperform with a $136 target.
- Piper Sandler increased its target to $145, highlighting robust prediction market activity ahead of the football season.
- Deutsche Bank lifted its HOOD projection to $136 from $115, emphasizing Robinhood Chain as a significant growth catalyst.
- The TVL on Robinhood Chain surged 27% in one week to $840 million, with the blockchain generating more fees than Ethereum, Solana, and other leading networks in the last day.
Thursday marked a standout trading session for Robinhood shares, which climbed 16.6% to finish at $124.72. This represents the stock’s strongest close since December 10 and followed a series of optimistic analyst reports.
The rally began with Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys on September 1, who shifted his rating on HOOD to Overweight from Equal-weight while increasing his price target from $124 to $150. His thesis centers on how the platform’s product diversification is improving customer retention metrics.
“Assets per customer have climbed 23% compared to last year,” Cyprys noted, explaining that the expanded suite of products encourages users to consolidate their assets with Robinhood as their portfolios mature.
On the same day, Scotiabank analyst Lance Jessurun launched coverage with a Sector Outperform rating and a $136 price objective. His perspective is that the market continues to value Robinhood as merely a retail brokerage, overlooking the fact that the firm now generates income through five separate revenue channels, with four being less sensitive to market cycles than traditional trading fees.
Betting Markets Expected to Drive Substantial Growth
Piper Sandler analyst Patrick Moley bumped his price objective up to $145 from $135 while maintaining an Overweight stance. He identified prediction market activity as a particularly compelling growth opportunity as the NFL and college football seasons approach.
Moley’s baseline scenario estimates that Robinhood users will execute approximately 29.7 billion event contracts between September and December 2026, translating to roughly $320 million in prediction market income during that timeframe.
Even August, typically a quiet month for sports betting, demonstrated solid trading volumes, partially driven by World Cup activity. The upcoming football season is anticipated to provide significantly stronger momentum.
Deutsche Bank joined the chorus of bullish analysts, increasing its HOOD target from $115 to $136. The firm particularly highlighted the Robinhood Chain, the company’s layer-2 blockchain infrastructure, as a notable growth opportunity.
Blockchain Network Shows Impressive Early Momentum
Despite launching under two months ago, the Robinhood Chain is already generating substantial activity. The network’s Total Value Locked increased by nearly 27% in the past week to reach $840 million, based on DeFiLlama tracking data.
In the last 24-hour period, the blockchain collected $4.59 million in fees, surpassing Ethereum, Solana, BNB, Avalanche, and multiple prominent layer-2 platforms such as Base and Arbitrum.
Industry observer The Milk Road highlighted that when annualized, the chain’s seven-day revenue positions it as the fourth-largest business segment among Robinhood’s 14 distinct revenue sources.
Separately from blockchain developments, Robinhood disclosed that users have placed approximately $150 million into recently introduced trust accounts, with average deposits exceeding $500,000.
The firm’s premium offering, Robinhood Gold, achieved an all-time high of 4.8 million subscribers during the second quarter.
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