Marathon Digital (MARA) stock price has crawled back in the past few weeks as Bitcoin staged a strong comeback and as investors assessed the impact of halving. The stock soared to over $23 this week, higher than last month’s low of $14.25.
Is MARA a good investment?
Bitcoin mining stocks have been in the spotlight recently after the network went through its halving event that led to a higher mining difficulty.
The halving happened at a time when most companies were boosting their hash rates to gain a competitive advantage.
Analysts believe that well-capitalized companies like Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, and CleanSpark will continue doing well in the long term. Weaker companies like Argo Blockchain and smaller firms might struggle to gain market share.
The most recent results showed that Marathon Digital produced 2,811 Bitcoins, a 28% increase from the same period in 2023. The number was, nonetheless, 34% lower than the 4,242 it mined in the fourth quarter.
Its revenue rose to $165 million while its net income jumped to over $337 million during the quarter. Its net income was higher than its revenue because of the gains on its digital assets, which include over 17,000 Bitcoins.
Marathon has also expanded its business recently. For example, the developers launched Anduro, a new Bitcoin layer-2 network similar to Stacks. The goal of this network is to be a platform that lets developers build applications that are handled in Bitcoin (BTC).
Marathon also launched MARAFW, a custom firmware that is designed to optimize individual chip settings. It also launched MARA UBC 2100 and MARA 2PIC700. The company hopes that these product launches will help it grow its revenue and market share.
Analysts expect that the rising Bitcoin price will help to boost the company’s revenues. The average estimate is that its revenue for the second quarter will be $168 million followed by $171 million in the next quarter. For the year, analysts expect that its revenue will hit over $722 million.
A key figure to watch in its financial numbers is depreciation, which is set to rise as the company updates its mining equipment. Its depreciation figure rose to over $77 million in the first quarter, higher than $17 million in the same quarter in 2023.
Marathon Digital stock price analysis
The 4H chart shows that the MARA stock price has crawled back in the past few days. In this, it has jumped from last month’s low of $14.24 to over $21. It has now moved slightly below the upper side of the ascending channel shown in black.
The stock has also formed a small golden cross pattern as the 200-period and 50-period moving averages have crossed each other. Therefore, the short-term stock’s outlook is bearish, with the next level to watch being $20. In the longer term, however, the stock will likely rebound and retest the key resistance at $24.60, its highest swing on March 28th.
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