Marathon Digital misses Q1 estimates on bad weather, utility failures

As a researcher with experience in the Bitcoin mining industry, I find Marathon Digital’s Q1 2024 results intriguing. The company’s revenues increased by 223% year-on-year, but it missed analyst estimates due to unexpected equipment failures and weather-related curtailments.


As a researcher studying the financial performance of Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies, I came across Marathon Digital’s first quarter 2024 earnings report which fell short of analysts’ revenue expectations. The company attributed this miss to unfavorable weather conditions and equipment malfunctions.

As a researcher examining Marathon’s financial performance, I discovered that their Q1 revenues grew an impressive 223% year-on-year to reach $165.2 million, according to the results announced on May 9. However, this figure fell short of Zacks’ estimate of $193.9 million by a significant margin of 14.80%.

Over the past three months, the company extracted 2,811 Bitcoins, which currently translate to approximately $176.7 million in value. This is a 28% increase compared to the same period a year prior, yet a 34% decrease from the 4,242 Bitcoins mined during Q4 of 2023.

During a May 9 conference call for earnings, Marathon CEO Fred Thiel revealed that the company’s production had been negatively impacted by several unexpected issues. The main culprits were transformer failures at third-party hosting sites and unscheduled maintenance by utility companies on their transmission lines. Additionally, there were more weather-related interruptions than anticipated across multiple locations.

Marathon Petroleum reported that inclement weather negatively affected its Garden City facility in Texas, as well as other locations, since they took ownership on April 2nd.

He addressed several problems by adding it, and his performance reached an all-time high of 27 exahashes per second (EH/s).

Thiel remained steadfast in their prediction to reach 50 exahash per second (EH/s) by year-end, an upgrade from their initial goal of 35-37 EH/s set in late April.

As an analyst, I would express it this way: My analysis reveals that BTC miners reported a remarkable 184% increase in quarterly net income compared to the same period last year, amounting to $337.2 million. This figure translates to an impressive earnings per share of $1.26, surpassing the modest Zacks estimate of $0.02.

Marathon benefited from FASB guidelines, which it implemented, and now reports a $488.8 million quarterly profit derived from the BTC holdings valued at $17,320 as of March 31st.

On May 9, Marathon Digital’s (MARA) stock price ended the day with a decrease of 2.19%, closing at $19.65. In post-market hours, there was an additional drop of 1%. This information is based on data from Google Finance.

Marathon Digital misses Q1 estimates on bad weather, utility failures

Its share price is down 14.30% year-to-date, it hit a 2024 high of $31 on Feb. 28.

This past week on May 7th, Marathon was announced as the newest addition to the S&P SmallCap 600 index. This particular index contains the stocks of 600 US companies, all of which have a market capitalization ranging from $1 billion to $6.7 billion and have reported profits not only in the most recent quarter but also in the last four quarters.

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2024-05-10 04:44