Riot Platforms Powers Up: Analyst Gives 4 Reasons Why He Is Bullish

Needham analyst John Todaro reiterated the Buy rating on Riot Platforms, Inc. RIOT on Friday, lowering the price forecast from $13.50 to $12.

On Thursday, the company reported first quarter results, in which total revenue was up from $79.3 million in the prior year's quarter, primarily driven by a $71.5 million increase in Bitcoin mining revenue.

The Bitcoin miner produced 1,530 Bitcoin in the first quarter, up from 1,364 in the first quarter of 2024. Riot's average cost to mine totaled $43,808 in the quarter. 

The analyst remains bullish on Riot Platforms for four main reasons.

First, the company has upcoming high-performance computing (HPC) opportunities in 2026 with 600MW of potential capacity at its Corsicana site.

Also Read: Riot Vs. MicroStrategy (Strategy) Vs. Block: One Bull, One Bear, One In The Balance Ahead Of Q1 Earnings

Second, Riot is a low-cost Bitcoin producer, with power costs below four cents per kilowatt-hour.

Third, it maintains a clean balance sheet with no corporate debt and holds one of the largest cash and Bitcoin positions among publicly traded mining firms.

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Lastly, the stock currently trades at a discount to peers, but the analyst expects this to change as HPC becomes a more significant growth driver.

Despite this optimism, the analyst lowered the price forecast, based on 13x the firm's 2026 estimated EV/EBITDA.

According to Todaro, Riot's SG&A expenses should ease going forward now that its litigation with Rhodium is resolved, which also frees up an additional 125MW of capacity.

While Riot has yet to secure a letter of intent with HPC tenants, the analyst remains optimistic about the potential at its Corsicana site, citing infrastructure upgrades and management's commitment to developing a full-stack, built-to-suit data center.

RIOT Price Action: Riot Platform shares closed Friday up 7.98% at 8.39%.

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