Riot Platforms (RIOT) received consecutive upgrades from Wall Street on Friday, with JPMorgan and Citigroup both raising their outlook on the bitcoin miner amid evolving industry dynamics and a transition toward high-performance computing.
JPMorgan elevated Riot to overweight from neutral and increased its price target to $19 from $15, describing it as the most appealing option among its mining counterparts. Citi upgraded to buy from neutral and raised its price target to $24 from $13.75. Both analysts highlighted Riot’s shift into artificial intelligence and cloud services as a potential growth engine as mining revenues come under pressure. Riot was slightly outperforming a significantly lower sector on Friday, dipping “just” 1.2% to $16.55.
In conjunction with its upgrade of RIOT, JPMorgan downgraded the previously high-performing IREN to underweight from neutral. IREN’s shares fell 9.7% on Friday but remain up 300% year-to-date. CleanSpark (CLSK) was lowered to neutral and dropped 9.3% on Friday while still showing a 34% increase year-to-date.
The bank maintained its buy rating on Cipher Mining (CIFR), doubling its price target to $12 from $6. At the time of publication, shares were down 3.5% to $11.20.
MARA Holdings (MARA) was kept at overweight, with its price target reduced to $20 from $22. The stock was down 1% to around $15.90 in early trading.
JPMorgan’s analysts are assigning a 50% probability that Riot, Cipher, and IREN will secure near-term high-performance computing (HPC) colocation agreements, using Core Scientific’s (CORZ) 800 MW CoreWeave (CRWV) deal as a reference point. The bank values HPC colocation contracts between $3.7 million and $8.6 million per gross megawatt (MW).
Read more: Bitcoin Mining Profitability Fell in August, Jefferies Says
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