Key Takeaways
- MARA Holdings rose 13% today on a $500 million buyback and a $750 million repayment of bitcoin-backed debt.
- Third-quarter revenue fell 35%, and most of its $632.1 million profit was an unrealized bitcoin gain.
- Riot Platforms and CleanSpark have signed long-term AI leases, but MARA’s two targeted leases could slip into next year.
- A signed lease and the Long Ridge closing are what to watch.
MARA Holdings (MARA) is up 13% today after its third-quarter report, which came with a $500 million buyback and a $750 million debt payoff.
MARA’s shareholder letter says its strategy now is to “maximize the value of every megawatt” it controls. Riot Platforms (RIOT) and CleanSpark (CLSK) are a step ahead of it there.
Most of the profit was a bitcoin gain
Revenue fell 35% to $164.2 million because the bitcoin MARA mined was worth 37% less than a year earlier. Net income jumped to $632.1 million, but $885.3 million of the quarter’s results was an unrealized gain on its bitcoin.
Before the report, analysts expected revenue to fall this year and recover in 2027:
MARA would need about $209 million in the fourth quarter to hit the $723 million analysts expect for 2026, more than it booked in any of the last four quarters. So I’d expect that estimate to come down.
MARA cleaned up its balance sheet
After the quarter ended, MARA sold 13,597 bitcoin for about $1.1 billion and repaid the $750 million it had borrowed against its coins to pay for Long Ridge, an Ohio power plant it’s still buying. Less than 5% of its bitcoin is now loaned out or pledged as collateral. The board then approved up to $500 million of buybacks, nearly a fifth of MARA’s market value at Monday’s close. But holders of MARA’s convertible notes can still demand $924.1 million back in 2027.
TIKR tracks 15 analysts on MARA Holdings. How many say “Buy”?
See the full breakdown of Buy, Hold, and Sell ratings on MARA Holdings, along with Wall Street’s revenue and earnings estimates, all in one place. More than 500,000 investors use TIKR to research stocks like this one. See MARA Holdings’ Analyst Ratings
Riot and CleanSpark already have tenants
MARA is “targeting signing two leases before year-end,” but it warns “that timing could slip into next year.” Long Ridge got federal approval last week, and MARA expects the deal to close in the coming weeks.
Riot is getting the same squeeze: its mining revenue fell to $116.0 million from $160.8 million in the third quarter. But last week Riot signed a 15-year lease of its 910-megawatt Corsicana campus with a frontier AI lab, worth about $28 billion over the initial term.
CleanSpark is down 1% today. Its revenue fell 30.5% in the quarter to June 30, but it has a signed 20-year, $6.6 billion lease at Sandersville, Georgia.
The buyback and the debt payoff were the right moves. But MARA is the one without a lease, and until it signs one, I’d call today’s jump a relief rally. Of course, if Long Ridge closes on time and a lease comes through by Dec. 31, MARA catches up fast.
So what is MARA stock actually worth?
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