Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of MARA Call Options (NASDAQ:MARA)

MARA Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 451,770 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 60% compared to the average daily volume of 282,372 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Frederick G. Thiel sold 55,010 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total transaction of $825,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,146,804 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,202,060. This trade represents a 1.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Douglas K. Mellinger sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.00, for a total value of $48,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 176,859 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,744. The trade was a 1.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 152,315 shares of company stock worth $2,322,961 over the last ninety days. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of MARA

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of MARA by 2.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,811,453 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $457,832,000 after buying an additional 1,028,512 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in MARA by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,675,994 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $128,755,000 after purchasing an additional 518,503 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in MARA by 55.7% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,289,953 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $72,334,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250,082 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in MARA by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,529,782 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $40,592,000 after purchasing an additional 236,251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in MARA by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,322,618 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $38,210,000 after purchasing an additional 294,161 shares during the last quarter. 44.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MARA Stock Performance

MARA opened at $14.76 on Friday. MARA has a 12-month low of $9.81 and a 12-month high of $30.28. The stock has a market cap of $5.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.69 and a beta of 6.82. The business has a 50 day moving average of $13.52 and a 200-day moving average of $17.13. The company has a quick ratio of 4.00, a current ratio of 4.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The business services provider reported ($0.40) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by ($0.06). MARA had a net margin of 27.48% and a negative return on equity of 8.40%. The business had revenue of $213.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $234.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.26 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 29.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that MARA will post -1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities assumed coverage on MARA in a report on Friday, March 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $19.00 price objective for the company. Barclays increased their price objective on MARA from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on MARA from $23.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of MARA in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Compass Point reissued a “sell” rating and set a $9.50 price target (down from $25.00) on shares of MARA in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.72.

MARA Company Profile

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.