Freedom Capital initiates a buy rating on Hut 8 Mining despite four consecutive weeks of stock declines, citing confidence in its strategic pivot to AI compute hosting.
Shares of Hut 8 Corp. (HUT) plunged more than 8% at the close on Tuesday, placing the stock on track for a fourth consecutive week of declines amid weak second-quarter results and valuation concerns. Despite the downturn, Freedom Capital initiated coverage with a ‘Buy’ rating and a $132 price target, implying upside of more than 63% from the last close.
According to TheFly, the analyst highlighted that Hut 8 is transitioning its data center capacity from cryptocurrency mining to supporting artificial intelligence workloads, a shift viewed as holding “great potential” for the entire group. However, despite the upgraded target and rating, Freedom Capital stated it prefers shares of Applied Digital (APLD) in the near term due to the latter’s “broader existing contracts,” while still considering Hut 8 “riskier for now.”
Market consensus remains strongly positive. Data from Koyfin shows the stock carries a 12-month average price target of $163.53, representing approximately 102% upside from its last close. All 17 analysts covering HUT maintain a ‘Buy’ or higher rating. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the stock was rated ‘neutral’ at the time of writing, even as message volumes surged roughly 62% over a 24-hour period. Retail commentary remains divided: one user remarked, “$HUT should've never joined ai, this stock is done,” while another countered, “$HUT in a very recent interview, CEO expects clearance from Texas on its data center project very soon…stock price will rocket.”
Fundamentally, Hut 8’s 1 GW Beacon Point AI campus in Texas appears to be among 23 large-load projects cleared by ERCOT’s latest regulatory review, with no deficiencies flagged—a development that removes a significant potential hurdle. Initial energization for the campus remains on track for the first quarter of 2027, and the facility is already secured under an interconnection agreement for its full 1 GW utility capacity. Against this backdrop, HUT stock has climbed more than 57% year-to-date in 2026.