MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) Shares Up 4.8% – Should You Buy?

MARA Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA)’s stock price traded up 4.8% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $12.39 and last traded at $11.98. 45,180,263 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 2% from the average session volume of 46,122,926 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.43.

More MARA News

Here are the key news stories impacting MARA this week:

• Positive Sentiment: New “buy” rating and $20 price target: HC Wainwright initiated coverage of MARA with a “buy” rating and a $20 target, implying approximately 66.9% upside from the referenced $11.98 level. The endorsement provides a fresh bullish catalyst, although the target is only an analyst estimate.
• Positive Sentiment: Unusually heavy call-option activity: Traders purchased 344,399 call options on Friday, 65% above the average call volume of 209,071. The activity indicates increased speculative interest and potentially bullish positioning, though options trading can also contribute to short-term volatility.
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor attention is elevated: MARA has recently become a heavily searched stock on Zacks.com, which may increase trading activity but does not by itself change the company’s fundamentals. Marathon Digital Holdings Is Attracting Investor Attention
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data appears unreliable: A report lists short interest at zero shares and a zero-day days-to-cover ratio, unchanged from a prior zero balance. This likely reflects incomplete or anomalous data rather than a meaningful shift in investor positioning.
• Negative Sentiment: Bitcoin and macroeconomic pressure remain headwinds: MARA recently fell alongside Bitcoin as oil prices rose and investors moved toward a more risk-off stance. Bitcoin miners have been declining more sharply than Bitcoin, highlighting MARA’s high sensitivity to cryptocurrency prices and market risk. Crypto Mining Stocks Fall Harder Than Bitcoin

Analyst Ratings Changes

MARA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of MARA from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Citizens Jmp assumed coverage on shares of MARA in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. They set a “market outperform” rating and a $24.00 price objective on the stock. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of MARA from $16.00 to $13.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 17th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $27.00 target price on shares of MARA in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, HC Wainwright began coverage on shares of MARA in a research note on Friday. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.90.

MARA Trading Up 4.8%

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.31 and a beta of 5.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The business services provider reported ($1.60) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.17 by ($1.77). The business had revenue of $174.88 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $209.44 million. MARA had a negative return on equity of 26.05% and a negative net margin of 429.71%.MARA’s revenue for the quarter was down 26.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.84 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MARA Holdings will post -1.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at MARA

In other news, CEO Frederick G. Thiel sold 27,505 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.25, for a total transaction of $391,946.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 4,562,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,008,628.25. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Salman Khan sold 16,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.21, for a total value of $147,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 377,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,472,777.86. This represents a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 109,386 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,889 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MARA

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in MARA in the second quarter worth about $161,000. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new position in shares of MARA during the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,545,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new position in shares of MARA during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,177,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of MARA by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 12,320 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,598 shares during the period. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc increased its holdings in MARA by 1,154.9% in the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 2,422 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 2,229 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 44.53% of the company’s stock.

About MARA

MARA Holdings, Inc, formerly known as Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc, is a digital asset technology company focused primarily on mining bitcoin. The company operates and supports computing infrastructure designed to secure the Bitcoin network by processing transactions and earning bitcoin rewards.

MARA develops and deploys large-scale data center and energy infrastructure for digital asset mining. Its activities include operating mining facilities, managing specialized application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining equipment, and pursuing energy and infrastructure solutions intended to support more efficient and scalable computing operations.