MARA saw a larger-than-usual amount of options traded in the last two weeks
After jumping to $26.69 to kick off 2024, the shares of Marathon Digital Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MARA) sport a more 2.9% midday lead to trade at $24.16. This positive price action follows Bitcoin's (BTC) first move above the $45,000 level since April 2022, which is boosting the cryptocurrency sector.
Marathon Digital stock has been a massive sector outperformer over the last year, boasting a 613.5% gain compared to a 113.1% 12-month lead for the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO). MARA scored a Dec. 27, 52-week high of $31.30, locking in 2023 as its second-best yearly performance, lagging only behind a 1,084.5% gain in 2020.
Unsurprisingly, the equity is popular with options traders. MARA once again took a spot on Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of stocks that attracted the highest weekly options volume in the last two weeks. Per White's data, 4,000,807 calls and 2,300,040 puts were exchanged over this 10-day period, with the most popular contract being the weekly 12/29 30-strike call.
Despite this outperformance, analysts remain hesitant. In fact, seven of the nine in coverage rate Marathon Digital stock a "hold" or worse, leaving room for an unwinding of pessimism. Further, while short interest is unraveling -- down 16.7% over the last month -- the 44.99 million shares sold short still represent 20.8% of MARA's total available float.