Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. ( MARA ) shares are moving Monday. The company announced a decrease in Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) production for May and Kerrisdale Capital issued a short report on Riot Platforms, Inc. ( RIOT ) last week.  

What To Know:

Marathon Digital ( MARA ) announced on Wednesday that it produced 616 bitcoins in May, down from 850 in April and a 50% decrease from 1,245 bitcoins in May 2023. The company also said it had increased its holdings to 17,857 bitcoins. 

Marathon said it energized approximately 5,000 additional miners (c. 0.7 EH/s). Approximately 9,000 miners were reinstalled at the Ellendale facility, awaiting a return to full energization. As a result, Marathon’s operating fleet increased to approximately 246,000 bitcoin miners theoretically capable of producing 30.6 EH/s, with 237,000 miners (c. 29.3 EH/s) fully operational. In May, Marathon achieved a peak overall hash rate of 28.1 EH/s. 

“In May, we mitigated the impact of the April Halving event by increasing the number of blocks won, resulting in the production of 616 bitcoin, a decline of only 27%,” said Marathon CEO Fred Thiel. 

Kerrisdale Capital issued a short-seller report on peer bitcoin-miner Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) last Thursday which alleged that the crypto-mining industry is one of the worst business models for a public company due to unpredictable revenue, high capital requirements and fierce competition. The short report may have contributed to Marathon shares dipping to close down more than 7% Friday.

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Is MARA A Good Stock To Buy?

An investor can make a few decisions when deciding whether a stock is a good buy. In addition to valuation metrics and price action which you can find on Benzinga's quote pages – like Marathon Digital Holdings ( MARA )‘ page for example – there are factors like whether or not a company pays a dividend or buys a large portion of its stock each quarter.

These are known as capital allocation programs. Marathon Digital Holdings ( MARA ) does not pay a dividend, but obviously has a few ways it can return value to shareholders. Feel free to search Benzinga's dividend calendar for the next company that is due to pay a dividend and determine what kind of yield you can earn for holding a share of the company.

For example, if you're looking to earn an annualized return of 13.14%, you'll need to buy a share of Annaly Capital Management by June 28, 2024. Once done, you can expect to receive a nominal payout of $0.65 on July 31, 2024.

Buyback programs are obviously different and highly variable. A company can approve a buyback program and purchase shares as it sees fit over the course of time in which the buyback was authorized. Looking through the latest news on Marathon Digital Holdings ( MARA ) will often yield whether or not the company has approved a buyback program recently. Buyback programs usually serve as a support for share prices, serving as a backstop for demand.

MARA Price Action: According to Benzinga Pro, Marathon Digital ( MARA ) shares are up 0.52% at $19.35 at the time of publication Monday.

Image: Pete Linforth from Pixabay