JPMorgan has cut its price targets for Bitcoin miners, reflecting company-specific announcements including second-quarter results, fleet efficiency improvements, and hashrate targets.
The target price cut is primarily due to the decline in Bitcoin’s price since the last model update, which lowered the spot Bitcoin price estimate from $68,000 to $60,000, according to an analysis report released by the investment bank on Friday.
Additionally, the baseline network hash rate assumption has increased from 600 exahashes per second to 615 EH/s. This factor has reduced the estimated target gross profit per EH/s for miners, the report added.
“Our price targets have declined across the board due to share dilution, the decline in the Bitcoin price, and the rise in the network hash rate. We remain overweight on IREN (our top pick) and RIOT (underweight Mara), and neutral on CIFR and CLSK,” wrote JPMorgan analysts Reginald L. Smith and Charles Pearce, referring to publicly traded Bitcoin miners Iris Energy, Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital, Cipher Mining, and CleanSpark, respectively.
Potential Bitcoin Mining Opportunities
However, the investment bank’s analysis suggests that sentiment and share price appreciation for both RIOT and IREN are likely to improve in the coming months. Friday’s report highlighted improvements in RIOT’s uptime and production metrics following the installation of an immersion cooling unit at its Corsicana facility.
The report also noted that the decline in IREN shares over the past three weeks, driven by a surge in electricity costs related to a July power hedge loss, presents a potential opportunity.
“We believe these mistakes can be corrected, and view the recent weakness as a good buying opportunity. Headlines like these also highlight the continued robust operations of CleanSpark and Cipher, which have delivered industry-leading uptime and cost management over multiple quarters,” the report said.
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