Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ) Trading 22.9% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) shot up 22.9% on Thursday after Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded the stock from a market perform rating to an outperform rating. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods now has a $28.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $25.00. Core Scientific traded as high as $22.40 and last traded at $22.2780. 7,503,267 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 41% from the average daily volume of 12,681,709 shares. The stock had previously closed at $18.12.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on CORZ. Lucid Cap Mkts raised shares of Core Scientific to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $38.00 price objective on shares of Core Scientific in a report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Core Scientific from $29.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Core Scientific in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Compass Point reissued a “buy” rating and set a $36.00 target price on shares of Core Scientific in a research note on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Core Scientific has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Core Scientific news, insider Todd M. Duchene sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.95, for a total transaction of $209,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,989,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,671,665.95. The trade was a 0.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 90,000 shares of company stock worth $2,234,900. 1.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Core Scientific

Here are the key news stories impacting Core Scientific this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AMD partnership supports Core Scientific’s AI pivot. AMD agreed to lease up to 2.5 gigawatts of data-center capacity, beginning with approximately 529–530 megawatts under 15-year agreements across five sites. The initial deployment represents about $14 billion in potential base contracted revenue, subject to development and execution. Mining For Megawatts: AMD’s Billion-Dollar Grid Grab
• Positive Sentiment: Colocation growth demonstrates progress beyond cryptocurrency mining. Second-quarter revenue reached $164.2 million, above expectations, while colocation revenue surged to $136.7 million from $10.6 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was $41.1 million, suggesting improving underlying operations. Core Scientific second-quarter results
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street support remains strong. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CORZ to Outperform with a $28 price target, while Needham and BTIG maintained Buy ratings. Canaccord also reiterated Buy and raised its target to $36. The appointment of AI and semiconductor executive Mark Adams to the board adds relevant industry expertise. Core Scientific board appointment
• Neutral Sentiment: Options activity signals heightened speculation. Traders purchased roughly 141,404 call options, about 55% above typical volume. This may reflect bullish expectations, but it also highlights CORZ’s elevated volatility.
• Negative Sentiment: GAAP results were sharply worse than expected. Core Scientific reported a quarterly loss of $3.32 per share versus consensus for a $0.06 loss. The roughly $1.15 billion net loss was driven largely by noncash warrant fair-value adjustments, but the size of the miss is weighing on sentiment despite the revenue beat.
• Negative Sentiment: AI conversion requires substantial capital and carries dilution risk. Quarterly capital expenditures were approximately $797.5 million as former mining facilities are upgraded. AMD received warrants for up to 30 million CORZ shares at $23.47, potentially diluting shareholders. Insider Todd Duchene also sold 10,000 shares in a recent transaction, although the sale represented only about 0.5% of his holdings.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Core Scientific

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Xponance LLC lifted its holdings in Core Scientific by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Xponance LLC now owns 22,896 shares of the company’s stock worth $333,000 after purchasing an additional 562 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its stake in Core Scientific by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 94,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,418,000 after buying an additional 700 shares during the period. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC increased its stake in Core Scientific by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 15,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $279,000 after buying an additional 766 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Core Scientific by 34.5% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,049 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,000 after buying an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in shares of Core Scientific by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 21,592 shares of the company’s stock worth $314,000 after buying an additional 869 shares in the last quarter.

Core Scientific Stock Performance

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $25.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $20.78. The company has a market capitalization of $7.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.99 and a beta of 5.50.

Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The company reported ($3.32) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by ($3.26). The company had revenue of $164.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.83 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Core Scientific, Inc. will post 0.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Core Scientific Company Profile

Core Scientific, Inc (NASDAQ: CORZ) is a leading provider of large-scale blockchain infrastructure and digital asset mining services. The company develops, owns and operates high-performance data centers optimized for the mining of Bitcoin and other proof-of-work cryptocurrencies. In addition to its core mining operations, Core Scientific offers colocation, hosting and managed services designed to support institutional clients and enterprise users in deploying and scaling blockchain nodes and computing hardware.

Core Scientific’s service portfolio includes hardware procurement, deployment and maintenance, real-time monitoring, power management and network connectivity.