MARA Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:MARA)

MARA Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders purchased 487,019 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 49% compared to the typical volume of 327,875 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MARA. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of MARA in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Compass Point downgraded shares of MARA from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $21.00 to $25.00 in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Macquarie boosted their target price on shares of MARA from $22.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of MARA in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on shares of MARA in a report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $27.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Frederick G. Thiel sold 27,505 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.80, for a total transaction of $544,599.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,155,595 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $82,280,781. This represents a 0.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Salman Hassan Khan sold 16,700 shares of MARA stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.50, for a total transaction of $392,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,836,129 shares in the company, valued at $43,149,031.50. This trade represents a 0.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 109,410 shares of company stock worth $2,485,329. Insiders own 0.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MARA

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in MARA by 261.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,236,920 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $64,249,000 after purchasing an additional 2,340,472 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board bought a new stake in shares of MARA during the 2nd quarter valued at about $11,920,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of MARA by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,157,491 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $116,115,000 after acquiring an additional 378,542 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans purchased a new stake in MARA in the second quarter worth $4,498,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of MARA by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,656,363 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $43,086,000 after buying an additional 217,106 shares during the period. 44.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MARA Price Performance

NASDAQ:MARA traded up $1.61 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $19.91. The company had a trading volume of 88,152,809 shares, compared to its average volume of 40,357,320. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $21.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.15. MARA has a 52-week low of $13.16 and a 52-week high of $34.09. The company has a quick ratio of 4.00, a current ratio of 4.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company has a market capitalization of $6.41 billion, a PE ratio of 25.20 and a beta of 5.76.

MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The business services provider reported ($0.42) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.38) by ($0.04). MARA had a negative return on equity of 8.40% and a net margin of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $131.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.26 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.05) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 34.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that MARA will post -1.09 earnings per share for the current year.

About MARA

MARA Holdings, Inc operates as a digital asset technology company that mines digital assets with a focus on the bitcoin ecosystem in United States. The company was formerly known as Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc and changed its name to MARA Holdings, Inc in August 2024. MARA Holdings, Inc was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.