Wall Street bullish on Bitcoin mining stocks, Citigroup and JP Morgan both raise Riot Platforms (RIOT.US) rating.

Citigroup and JPMorgan both upgraded the rating of Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms (RIOT.US), with the latter also adjusting the ratings of other major Bitcoin mining stocks. Citigroup analyst Peter Kristensen stated in a research report: "Recent developments in the high-performance computing/artificial intelligence field, including the partnership between WULF/CIPH and Fluidstack, especially the $30 billion infrastructure partnership between Oracle Corporation and OpenAI, have prompted us to reevaluate the value and timing of Riot's high-performance computing/artificial intelligence capacity planning." The report mentioned: "We are waiting for Bitcoin data at the end of the month to finalize the third-quarter estimate, but we have adjusted the valuation framework and currently assume that approved/electrified 400 megawatts of capacity is valued at $12.4 million per megawatt. Considering the strengthening of Bitcoin network hash rate growth, we assume a 15-20% decrease in the tax-depreciation and amortization multiple of Bitcoin mining profit, partially offsetting the valuation upgrade." Citigroup upgraded Riot's rating from "Neutral" to "Buy/High Risk" and significantly raised the target price from $13.75 to $24. At the same time, JPMorgan analysts Rijana Smith and Charles Pierce upgraded Riot's rating from "Neutral" to "Hold" and raised the target price from $15 to $19, stating that the stock is the best value choice among current Bitcoin miners. JPMorgan stated: "We assume there is a 50% possibility of Cipher (CIFR.US), IREN (IREN.US), and Riot signing high-performance computing hosting agreements for their recently available remaining capacity, with the recently signed 800 megawatts of capacity by Core Scientific and CoreWeave as the upper limit for single-tenant near-term demand." The investment bank analysts said: "In this framework, we believe Riot has the greatest relative upside (+14%)." They noted in the research report: "We estimate that IREN's stock price has factored in expectations for its hosting agreement in Sweetwater exceeding 1 gigawatt, which would be a record-scale transaction exceeding $10 billion in capital expenditures. While achievable in the long term, we believe that at the current price level, the downside risks outweigh the upside potential." IREN's rating was downgraded from "Neutral" to "Sell," but the target price was raised from $16 to $24. CleanSpark's rating was downgraded from "Hold" to "Neutral," and the target price was lowered from $15 to $14. Smith and Pierce stated in the report: "CleanSpark's stock price seems to have fully reflected the impact of the company's recent hash rate expansion to 50 EH/s, and investors may need a clearer understanding of the company's latest high-performance computing plans to further drive the stock price higher from its current level." Cipher Mining was rated as "Neutral" with a target price of $12; MARA Holdings was rated as "Hold" with a target price of $20.