Benchmark raised the target price of Hut 8 (HUT.US) to the highest level on Wall Street, and the stock price soared 14%

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Hut 8 (HUT.US) stock price rose sharply on Monday. At one point, it soared 19%, and closed up 14.21% to $50.39. Previously, Benchmark, a subsidiary of StoneX, raised its target price to $85, the highest level on Wall Street. Analysts pointed out that the increase stemmed from a recent agreement reached by the real estate investment trust (REIT) to lease 245 megawatts of its River Bend data park capacity to Fluidstack for a period of 15 years.

Analyst Mark Palmer wrote in his research report to clients: “This deal combines superior economic terms compared to similar deals, long-term, investment-grade guaranteed cash flow, and multiple embedded expansion options across three counterparties — Anthropic, Fluidstack, and Google (GOOGL.US). We believe this makes Hut 8 one of the most advantageous artificial intelligence/high-performance computing infrastructure providers on the open market.”

He praised Hut 8 management for not rushing to monetize the company's electricity assets in the early days of the AI infrastructure battle when pricing, structure, and counterparty conditions were less favorable. Instead, the company waited until it was able to reach a deal that met internal return thresholds and strategic standards.

Benchmark valued the initial 245 megawatt portion of River Bend at around $7.6 billion, reflecting contract cash flow and scarce value of power resources with investment grade ratings that can be used for artificial intelligence.

Based on classification plus total valuation analysis, Palmer reaffirmed Hut 8's “buy” rating and raised its target price from $78 to $85.