IREN stock bounced roughly 6% in Monday’s premarket, trading around $41.05, after a brutal Thursday session that saw the stock shed 10.39%.
The catalyst? A report from The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column that Anthropic is running a confidential tender for at least 1.4 gigawatts of Australian data center capacity. The project is valued at between $12 billion and $15 billion.
IREN is named as one of a shortlist of bidders. The others include CDC Data Centres, AirTrunk, NextDC, and Stack Infrastructure.
Anthropic wants at least 1 gigawatt of operational capacity online by the end of 2027. It may split the contract across multiple providers rather than going with a single winner.
According to the report, Infratil-owned CDC Data Centres is expected to land the largest share if the project is divided up.
The news gave IREN a company-specific boost at a time when AI-focused bitcoin miners have been under pressure from rising infrastructure costs, competition, and growing capital requirements.
Wall Street remains broadly bullish on IREN despite the recent pullback. The consensus is Buy, with an average price target of $81.75 — more than double where the stock currently trades.
Jefferies started coverage on June 18 with a Buy rating and a $79 target. Macquarie kept its Outperform rating with a $90 target on June 4. B. Riley Securities raised its target to $96 and reiterated Buy on the same day.
Bernstein is sitting at a $100 price target and a Buy rating, pointing to IREN’s data center buildout as the key driver.
Canaccord Genuity bumped its target from $70 to $79 on June 3, also with a Buy. HC Wainwright raised its target to $85 in May.
IREN is scheduled to report earnings on August 27. The Street is modeling a loss of $0.38 per share on revenue of $165.16 million.
That compares to a loss of $0.66 per share and revenue of $187.30 million in the same quarter last year.
Not everything has been positive. IREN’s board signed off on an $800 million founder equity package for its co-CEOs, alongside a Golden State Warriors sponsorship deal.
The moves drew criticism from retail investors and analysts alike, raising questions about capital allocation and potential dilution. A director also sold 11,958 shares, which added to the cautious mood.
Despite those concerns, institutional interest has picked up. Pictet Asset Management raised its stake by 349.3% in Q1, adding 99,384 shares for a total of 127,835 shares worth around $4.38 million.
Several other funds also took new positions in IREN during Q4, including North Star Investment Management, Clearstead Trust, and Aventura Private Wealth.
From a technical standpoint, IREN is still below all key moving averages. It trades 23.2% below its 20-day SMA and 24.9% below its 50-day SMA. Key resistance sits near $45.50, with support around $36.
The stock has a 12-month range of $14.72 to $76.87 and a market cap of $13.87 billion.
The post Is IREN Stock Worth Buying After the Anthropic Data Center News? appeared first on CoinCentral.
