New York, June 12, 2026, 14:04 EDT
- Robinhood shares traded flat Friday afternoon. The stock was coming off a big move Thursday, when the company reported stronger May operating data and Needham raised its price target.
- Robinhood saw record traffic during the SpaceX IPO rush, but the demand led to some platform problems. The episode showed the broker’s size with retail users and exposed the risk in its system.
- Robinhood’s upcoming monthly operating update is next. Investors will watch to see if trading, deposits, and event-contract activity in June kept up with May’s pace.
Robinhood Markets, Inc. was little changed at $92.31 Friday afternoon. Shares moved between $96.09 and $90.27 earlier in the session. The company showed a market cap of about $84.6 billion. The price-to-earnings ratio was around 44.9, keeping the shares at a valuation that suggests investors are still betting on growth, not a turnaround.
Robinhood shares got a lift after Needham’s John Todaro boosted his price target to $97 from $85 and stuck with a Buy, citing a pick-up in equities and event contracts in the May numbers, Benzinga said. Investing.com reported Needham increased estimates in most categories, even as it cut crypto volume forecasts. The bull case is shifting more toward trading activity outside crypto.
Robinhood saw a wave of user complaints Friday as SpaceX shares started trading, causing outages on the platform, according to the Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch. Issues on Robinhood picked up near midday, with Downdetector showing a spike in problems before things eased later, both outlets said. Robinhood blamed the outages on a surge in traffic. That’s a mixed read for HOOD—strong demand can lift volumes, but ongoing access troubles could hurt trust if they come back.
Robinhood has a lot riding on the SpaceX listing as it leans on retail IPO access to attract active traders. AP said this week that SpaceX planned to allow retail buyers in through brokers like Robinhood, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, SoFi and E-Trade. The report added that individual investors could get a bigger part of the deal than usual.
Robinhood’s bull case relies on its latest operating momentum. In May, the company said funded customers hit 27.7 million with $377 billion in total platform assets. Net deposits totaled $5.6 billion and equity notional trading volume was $315 billion. Notional trading volume is the total value of trades handled, not revenue for Robinhood. Event contracts traded climbed to 3.9 billion. Margin balances jumped 117% year over year to $19.5 billion.
Bearish investors say the momentum is probably priced in. Robinhood’s app crypto notional trading volume dropped 50% year over year in May, even with Bitstamp included, total crypto volume just ticked up. In the first quarter, crypto revenue tumbled 47% from a year ago, but total net revenue climbed 15% to $1.07 billion and diluted EPS came in at $0.38, up 3%. That leaves HOOD exposed to swings in retail trading, crypto volumes and the staying power of new bets like event contracts.
Robinhood shares are not looking cheap right now. The stock is just a bit under Needham’s new $97 target, and it’s also below the average analyst target of $100.86, according to 27 analysts tracked by StockAnalysis.com and S&P Global. Investors are watching for the next monthly numbers from Robinhood. Growth in equity volumes, deposits, margin lending and event contracts would help the bull side. Weakness in crypto volumes or new platform glitches would give bears more to work with.
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