Hut 8 Upgraded to Buy, Risk Reward Is to the Upside: H.C. Wainwright

• Hut 8 double upgraded to buy from sell at H.C. Wainwright.
• The risk-reward for the shares is now skewed to the upside, the report said.
• The probability of Hut 8 signing an HPC/AI customer in the near-term has increased, the broker said.

Hut 8 rose Wednesday after broker H.C. Wainwright upgraded the Bitcoin miner two steps to buy from sell.

The broker also raised its price target on the shares to $13.50 from $7.50. The stock rose for the first time in four days, adding as much as 5.6%, and was recently trading 3.7% higher around $11.36.

The broker gave four reasons for its positive shift in sentiment, among them that Hut 8 now benefits from "competitive blended average electricity costs" following the restructuring of its newest facility in Texas.

The miner also has the "capital and the infrastructure in place to purchase and deploy the latest-gen mining equipment at an opportune time in the cycle," analysts Mike Colonnese and Dylan Scales wrote.

The company may profit from the growing demand for energy and infrastructure from artificial intelligence (AI) companies, and the likelihood of it signing a high-performance computing (HPC) or AI customer has increased following the $150 million investment by Coatue in June, the report said.

Wainwright noted that Hut 8 is actively engaged in talks with potential customers for large-scale HPC and AI projects.

Hut 8 reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter revenue on Tuesday as a result of lower self-mining income.

Read more: Miner Hut 8's Bitcoin Stack Gives it Capital to Pursue Upcoming Projects, Upgrade to Buy: Craig-Hallum