Investors Buy Large Volume of MARA Call Options (NASDAQ:MARA)

MARA Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Investors purchased 310,828 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 50% compared to the typical volume of 207,040 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on MARA. Morgan Stanley set a $10.00 target price on shares of MARA and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of MARA from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on MARA from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 7th. Citizens Jmp assumed coverage on MARA in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. They set a “market outperform” rating and a $24.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 price target on shares of MARA in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Salman Khan sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.21, for a total transaction of $147,360.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 377,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,472,777.86. This represents a 4.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Frederick G. Thiel sold 27,505 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.22, for a total transaction of $308,606.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 4,217,586 shares in the company, valued at $47,321,314.92. This represents a 0.65% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 106,891 shares of company stock worth $1,124,731. Company insiders own 0.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MARA. Everhart Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of MARA in the third quarter valued at approximately $152,000. Moody National Bank Trust Division raised its holdings in shares of MARA by 19.4% in the 3rd quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 159,737 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,810,000 after purchasing an additional 25,962 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its holdings in MARA by 58.2% during the third quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 4,009 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 1,475 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of MARA in the second quarter valued at $161,000. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new stake in shares of MARA during the 2nd quarter worth $3,545,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 44.53% of the company’s stock.

MARA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MARA traded up $0.10 on Thursday, hitting $8.33. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 41,476,222 shares, compared to its average volume of 45,602,391. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $10.99 and a 200-day moving average of $11.79. The company has a market capitalization of $3.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.91 and a beta of 5.33. MARA has a 12-month low of $6.66 and a 12-month high of $23.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.89.

MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The business services provider reported ($1.60) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($1.77). The company had revenue of $174.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $209.44 million. MARA had a negative net margin of 429.71% and a negative return on equity of 26.05%. MARA’s quarterly revenue was down 26.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.84 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that MARA will post -1.65 EPS for the current year.

About MARA

MARA Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: MARA), formerly known as Marathon Digital Holdings, is a digital asset technology company focused primarily on mining bitcoin. The company operates specialized data centers containing application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) computers that process transactions and secure the Bitcoin network in exchange for bitcoin rewards.

In addition to bitcoin mining, MARA develops and operates digital asset computing infrastructure. Its activities include managing energy and data-center resources, deploying mining hardware, and pursuing technologies designed to improve the efficiency and scalability of digital asset mining.