MicroStrategy gets new Buy rating from BTIG on bitcoin strategy, model shift

BTIG analyst Mark Palmer analyst Mark Palmer initiates coverage of MicroStrategy (MSTR) with a Buy rating and a price target of $850 based on his sum-of-the-parts analysis, assuming that the price of bitcoin rises to $95K by year-end 2022.MSTR stock climbs 1.5% in premarket trading."We fully acknowledge that MSTR, which last August became the first publicly traded U.S. company to adopt bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset, has taken a massive unhedged long position on a highly volatile speculative asset," Palmer wrote in a note.Thus, anyone who invests in the stock should understand that their investment is highly correlated with the price of bitcoin, he added.Palmer views bitcoin as a sort of digital gold, "an attractive, non-sovereign store of value at a time when unprecedented levels of global fiscal and monetary stimulus have heightened investors’ concerns about monetary inflation and the debasement of fiat currencies."By using bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve