Riot Platforms Q1 earnings 'further solidify our growth path'

Riot Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: RIOT) is in the green at writing after reporting a surprise profit for its first financial quarter.

Riot comes in shy of revenue estimates in Q1

Revenue printed at $79.3 million in Q1 – versus $95.5 million that experts had forecast, as per the press release the bitcoin miner posted on Wednesday.

On the plus side, however, analysts had called for a 21 cents loss on a per-share basis while Riot Platforms came in at a record 82 cents per share of earnings. According to Jason Les – its chief executive:

Riot Platforms now expects to end this year with 31 EH/s of total self-mining hash rate capacity. Its shares are now down some 40% versus their year-to-date high.  

Riot benefited from a sharp rally in Bitcoin

Riot Platforms attributed much of the strength in its fiscal first quarter to a whopping 131% increase the price of Bitcoin versus last year.

The Nasdaq-listed firm mined 1,364 bitcoin in total – down 36% versus the same quarter last year while the cost of mining at $23,034 on average was up some 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. CEO Les also said in the press release today:

Other notable figures in the earnings report include $4.7 million in engineering revenue which was also down significantly versus the same three-month period of 2023. Wall Street currently has a consensus "buy" rating on Riot stock.