Bitcoin Miner IREN's AI Push Gains Momentum, Price Target Hiked 60% to $37: Canaccord

IREN (IREN) reported fourth-quarter results that highlighted rapid progress in both its bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence infrastructure businesses, according to a Friday research report by broker Canaccord Genuity.

The broker reiterated its buy rating on the stock and hiked its price target 60% to $37 from $24, citing stronger visibility in both mining and AI revenue streams.

In early trading, shares are higher by 25% to $28.75.

The company’s mining unit reached an annualized revenue run rate above $1 billion, powered by 50 exahash per second (EH/s) of capacity and one of the industry’s most efficient fleets at 15 J/TH, operating on 3.5 cent/kWh power, analysts led by Joseph Vafi wrote. That translates into a $36,000 cost to mine a bitcoin, well below market levels.

Bitcoin mining revenue came in at $187.3 million for the quarter, up 33% sequentially, while adjusted EBITDA jumped 46% to $121.9 million.

On the AI side, IREN is accelerating expansion, the report noted. The bitcoin miner quadrupled its hashrate and added another megawatt of power capacity, now totaling 3 MW, with further growth expected in fiscal 2025.

The hashrate refers to the total combined computational power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain, and is a proxy for competition in the industry and mining difficulty.

Canaccord also noted IREN's recent designation as an NVIDIA (NVDA) preferred partner, which came almost simultaneously with the announcement of the purchase of an additional 2,400 GPUs.

With 2,910 MW of secured power capacity and some of the lowest all-in cash costs in the industry, Canaccord argues IREN is positioned to become one of the largest and most efficient publicly listed miners, with significant optionality in high-performance computing.

Read more: IREN Posts First Full-Year Profit on AI Cloud Growth, Mining Expansion; Shares Climb