Barclays Lifts Strategy Price Target to $175; MSTR Shares Gain 1.89%
Barclays raised its 12-month price target on Strategy (MSTR) to $175 from $160, lifting the stock 1.89% on Oct. 9.
MSTR closed at $154.34 for a gain of $2.87 and ticked up to $154.68 after hours. The revised target implies roughly 13.4% upside from the Oct. 9 close.
Analyst Nik Cremo raised the target by $15, or about 9.4%, and kept an Overweight rating in a third-quarter earnings preview covering payments and fintech companies. Barclays places Strategy within its US payments and fintech coverage alongside Visa and Mastercard. Cremo also addressed the company share performance through the crypto market downturn that began in October 2025 and ran through June 2026. Barclays had already moved its target to $160 earlier in the year.
Wall Street remains broadly constructive. TipRanks data cited on Oct. 9 showed 13 analysts rating MSTR a Buy, with an average 12-month target of $236.
Trading was volatile but ended higher. MSTR opened at $154.21 against a prior close of $151.47, fell to $150.50, then rallied to an intraday high of $158.11 before settling at $154.34. Volume reached about 15.9 million shares, below the roughly 21.75 million daily average. After-hours trade put the shares at $154.68, up another 0.22%. Yahoo Finance listed an intraday market capitalization of about $61.54 billion. Earlier reports showed gains of more than 3% when the stock traded near $157.
Strategy holds about 848,000 BTC, acquired at an average price of $75,441 per coin. The company added 334 BTC for roughly $28.7 million in the prior week, according to reported figures. Chairman Michael Saylor has kept Bitcoin accumulation at the center of treasury policy. Strategy also leans on preferred stock financing, with its STRC preferred shares carrying a stated 12% dividend yield. Bitcoin moves drive the market value of those holdings and shape investor assessments of MSTR. Strategy reported a $20.91 billion gain on its Bitcoin holdings for the third quarter of 2026.
Bitcoin traded near $82,600 on Oct. 9 after rebounding from a weekly low around $80,400. Selling pressure had pushed BTC below $84,000, and the weekly high near $87,000 left a wide trading range intact. Short-term holders moved 55,600 BTC to exchanges at a loss over 24 hours, a sign of mounting selling pressure. Crypto liquidations totaled $1.09 billion, including about $1.05 billion in long positions. BTC briefly fell to $80,350 before recovering toward $82,500. Continued capitulation among short-term holders could drive further declines, yet the same activity may point to seller exhaustion and a possible rebound.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Analyst targets, Bitcoin prices and equity valuations may change as market conditions evolve.
