Riot Platforms (RIOT) shares rose 5% pre-market after the bitcoin BTC$110,198.39 mining company unexpectedly posted a third-quarter profit on record revenue.
Net income was $104.5 million, or 26 cents per diluted share, compared with a loss of $154.4 million, or 54 cents, the year before. The company had been expected to post a 12 cent-a-share loss, according to Zacks Equity Research.
Revenue more than doubled to $180.2 million from the year-earlier quarter, driven mainly by a $93 million increase in bitcoin mining revenue, the company said. Riot mined 1,406 bitcoin during the quarter at an average cost of $46,324 per coin. The price of the largest cryptocurrency rose 6.4% in the quarter, CoinDesk data show.
The Castle Rock, Colorado company, which develops and operates large-scale data centers, also announced the initiation of 112 megawatts of core and shell development at its Corsicana, Texas data center campus, following land acquisition and design completion milestones.
CEO Jason Les said these developments mark a pivotal step toward transforming Riot into a large-scale, multifaceted data center operator leveraging its land and power assets.
Riot held 19,287 bitcoin — 3,300 are held as collateral — valued at roughly $2.2 billion as of Sept. 30.
