Canaan’s Turnaround Gains Steam as Benchmark Doubles Price Target to $4

Crypto mining rig maker Canaan (CAN) is entering a stronger phase of growth, according to Wall Street broker Benchmark, which raised its price target on the company’s American depositary receipts (ADRs) to $4 from $2 and reiterated its rating on the stock.

The shares were 5% higher in early trading on Thursday, around $1.79.

Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer said the company’s outlook has brightened now that Nasdaq has confirmed Canaan regained compliance with listing rules, removing a key overhang that had dampened liquidity and investor interest.

With that issue resolved, Palmer said attention can return to improving fundamentals, particularly rising demand for its Avalon mining rigs and expansion of its bitcoin self-mining operations.

The analyst pointed to growing traction for the Avalon product line, highlighted by Canaan’s largest U.S. order in three years for more than 50,000 Avalon A15 Pro units as evidence that the company is regaining market share in the mining hardware space.

Palmer also noted follow-on purchases of its immersion-optimized A1566I rigs by CleanSpark (CLSK) and called out the compact Avalon Q as a potential future play in the consumer mining segment.

On the self-mining side, Canaan’s September update showed 9.3 exahashes per second (EH/s) of deployed capacity, 92 bitcoins mined for the month and digital asset holdings of about 1,582 BTC and 2,830 ETH.

Benchmark said the company’s average power cost of $0.042 per kilowatt hour (kWh) remains among the most competitive in the industry and should continue to decline through better energy aggregation and site selection.

With the compliance issue behind it, shipments of the 50,000 Avalon A15 Pro rigs expected in the fourth quarter, and a growing low-cost self-mining footprint, Benchmark said Canaan is positioned for further share price gains.

The recent weakness in the stock offers an attractive entry point, the report added.

Read more: Canaan Shares Jump Over 12% as it Lands Largest U.S. Order in 3 Years