Riot Platforms (RIOT) Shares Climb as Q3 Earnings Beat Estimates on Record Revenue

Shares of Riot Platforms (RIOT) rose 5% in pre-market after bitcoin BTC$110,084.73 mining company published unexpectedly a third quarter profit on record revenues.

Net income was $104.5 million, or 26 cents per diluted share, compared with a loss of $154.4 million, or 54 cents, a year earlier. The company was expected to post a loss of 12 cents per share, according to Zacks Equity Research.

Revenue more than doubled to $180.2 million from the year-ago quarter, driven primarily by a $93 million increase in bitcoin mining revenue, the company said. Riot mined 1,406 bitcoins during the quarter at an average cost of $46,324 per coin. The price of the largest cryptocurrency increased 6.4% in the quarter, CoinDesk data show.

The Castle Rock, Colorado-based company, which develops and operates large-scale data centers, also announced the start of 112 megawatts of core and shell development at the data center campus in Corsicana, Texas, following the acquisition of the land and the final design stages.

CEO Jason Les said these developments mark a crucial step toward Riot’s transformation into a large-scale, multifaceted data center operator that leverages its land and power assets.

Riot held 19,287 bitcoins — 3,300 are held as collateral — valued at about $2.2 billion as of September 30.