Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) released its September and third-quarter bitcoin (BTC-USD) mining update on Friday, which showed significant improvement compared to the previous two months. The company successfully transitioned out of the old facility in Hardin and began operations at new facilities, which helped propel its mining production. Despite that, MARA stock fell 14.4% last Friday.
Notably, Marathon Digital’s mining processes at King Mountain wind farm in Texas are hosted by Compute North, which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Nonetheless, Fred Thiel, Marathon’s chairman and CEO, noted that Compute North’s current facility at King Mountain is not affected by these proceedings. Having said that, Marathon Digital’s asset-light model will enable the company to easily relocate its miners to other locations should there be any triggers in the future.
Marathon Digital’s BTC Mining Update for September
In September, Marathon Digital produced 360 bitcoins, increasing 5.7% compared to September 2021 and significantly higher than August’s production of 184 BTC. Notably, MARA produced 616 BTC in Q3.
As of September end, Marathon Digital held approximately 10,670 bitcoins, worth approximately $207.3 million. The company currently has a deployed fleet of 37,000 active miners and a hash rate capacity of 3.8 exahash per second (EH/s).
Happy with the company’s BTC mining progress, Thiel said, “We expect to continue building our hash rate in the fourth quarter as approximately 19,000 additional miners, representing approximately 2.0 exahashes per second, are expected to come online in the next 30 days.”
Based on these additional miners, the company aims to achieve 23 EH/s by the middle of Fiscal year 2023.
What is the Forecast for MARA Stock?
On TipRanks, the average Marathon Digital price forecast is $21.33, which implies a massive 90.3% upside potential from current levels. Also, MARA stock has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on four Buys and three Holds. Meanwhile, the stock has lost 65.9% so far this year.
Recently, B. Riley analyst Lucas Pipes cut the price target for MARA stock to $8 (26.8% downside potential) from $10 while maintaining a Hold rating. Pipes expects a softer market for bitcoin prices in the near term and hence, reduced the price target for MARA. Further, he reduced his overall average price targets for 2024 by 24% owing to the anticipation of a halving event in early 2024 and to reflect the shift in his target year for valuation to 2024 from 2023.
Ending Thoughts
Crypto stocks are under constant pressure from the ongoing crypto winter, regulatory issues, and fierce competition. Also, Marathon faces added pressure from the Compute North bankruptcy. However, analysts have a high price expectation from MARA over the next twelve months, which may be considered an opportunistic point for investors.
