Skip to main content

Thanks Bitcoin, MicroStrategy stock is up 113% since being downgraded by Citigroup

MSTR stock has surged by roughly 113% since Dec. 8 when it was downgraded by a Citigroup analyst.

On Dec. 8, 2020, Citigroup, one of the largest banks in the world, downgraded MicroStrategy'ss stock (MSTR). Since then, MSTR stock is up 113.27% from $289.45 to $617.31, as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) rallied.

In the same period, the Citigroup stock has declined slightly by 0.63%, from $58.36 to $57.99.

MicroStrategy stock vs. BTC and Nasdaq. Source: ecoinmetrics

Why has MicroStrategy stock performed so strongly despite the downgrade?

MicroStrategy has been investing its treasury holdings in Bitcoin, making BTC is treasury reserve asset. Currently, it is the biggest public company holder with over 70K BTC worth roughly $2.4 billion at today's prices. 

Moreover, on Dec. 9, 2020, MicroStrategy announced raising $550 million in capital from convertible bonds.

In an official statement, MicroStrategy explicitly said that it intends to invest in Bitcoin with the proceeds of the bond. This is also the statement that is said to have triggered Citi to downgrade MicroStrategy. The statement read:

“MicroStrategy intends to invest the net proceeds from the sale of the notes in bitcoin in accordance with its Treasury Reserve Policy pending the identification of working capital needs and other general corporate purposes.”

At the time, Citigroup analyst Tyler Radke issued a sell rating. He acknowledged that the return on MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin investment has been “impressive,” but said the market is overpricing the core business of the firm. He wrote:

“MSTR's bitcoin investment has returned $250M (or worth $26/share or +20% towards stock) since August '20. While impressive, it pales in comparison to the 172% return in the stock. At the current stock price, our analysis suggests that the market is pricing in much more optimistic valuation scenarios for the core business and Bitcoin.”

Since December 2020, however, the price of Bitcoin saw an explosive rally. While the skepticism toward the core business of MicroStrategy could have some merit, BTC saw a rally of over 100% in the last month of the year.

In just December, Bitcoin rallied from $18,319 to over $42,000 on Binance, outperforming most assets in both the stock market and the crypto market.

What’s next?

MicroStrategy remains an important multi-billion dollar business intelligence firm with strong core business.

But as long as the price of Bitcoin continues to increase in the near term, it will likely have a positive impact on the stock price of MSTR.

Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy, remains fully confident in the company’s position on Bitcoin, and often buying the price dips. In the fourth quarter financial results for 2020, Saylor wrote:

“Going forward, we continue to plan to hold our bitcoin and invest additional excess cash flows in bitcoin. Additionally, we will explore various approaches to acquire additional bitcoin as part of our overall corporate strategy.”


from https://ift.tt/3aijava
https://ift.tt/3ajA10z

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Five Bitcoin Price Charts Analyzing The Dramatic Q1 2022 Conclusion

There are only hours remaining until the Q1 2022 close in Bitcoin price action. With the important quarterly candle set to close tonight, let’s look at what technicals might say about the direction of the next quarter. Q1 2022 Comes To A Close For Bitcoin The first quarter of a year, often sets the tone for the year to come. In investments, a poor Q1 performance is indicative of a bad year ahead. Considering the fact that Bitcoin price is now above $45,000 after touching $32,000 this quarter, it is tough to say the performance has been “poor” by anything other than crypto standards. Related Reading | Bitcoin Weekly Momentum Flips Bullish For First Time In 2022 The cryptocurrency has recovered nearly 40% from the low, leaving a long wick behind. Such a long wick suggests that before the quarter came to a close, buyers stepped up in a major way. Buyers were able to step up in a larger capacity in Q1 2022 than bears were able to in the final quarter of last year. The bearish wick to cl...

FTX hacker reportedly transfers a portion of stolen funds to OKX after using Bitcoin mixer

On-chain activity suggests that the hacker has sent at least 225 BTC (4.5 million) to OKX so far. Hackers who drained FTX and FTX USA of over $450 million worth of assets just moments after the doomed crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, continue to move assets around in an attempt to launder the money.  A crypto analyst who goes by ZachXBT on Twitter alleged that the FTX hackers have transferred a portion of the stolen funds to the OKX exchange, after using the Bitcoin mixer ChipMixer. The analyst reported that at least 225 BTC — worth $4.1 million USD — has been sent to OKX so far.  1/ Myself and @bax1337 spent this past weekend looking into the FTX attacker’s deposits to ChipMixer. It appears they’ve likely been transferring a portion of the stolen FTX funds to OKX after withdrawing from CM So far we’ve accounted for at least $4.1m (255 BTC) sent to OKX pic.twitter.com/C46JZWtktn — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) November 29, 2022 According to ZachXBT, the FTX h...

2 metrics signal the $1T crypto market cap support likely won’t hold

Despite the 8.5% weekly rally in cryptocurrencies, the lack of stablecoin premiums in Asia and futures markets activity shows buyers’ lack of confidence. Cryptocurrencies broke the $1 trillion market capitalization resistance on Oct. 26, which had been holding strong for the previous 41 days. Despite Bitcoin’s ( BTC ) modest 5.5% weekly gains, the aggregate value of 20,000 listed tokens increased by 8.5% between Oct. 24 and 31. Total crypto market cap, USD (in billions). Source: TradingView The cryptocurrency market was positively impacted by a 6.3% weekly rally in the Russell 2000 mid-capitalization stock market index. Some encouraging news accompanied the positive tailwinds from traditional markets. For instance,  55,000 BTC was withdrawn from Binance on Oct. 26, a record high. Typically, analysts consider the reduced number of coins deposited on exchanges a bullish indicator, as the immediate selling pressure eases. Moreover, exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com ...