Bitcoin
Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy acquires another 11,900 Bitcoins for US$786 million
Led by executive chairman Michael Saylor, the company held 214,400 bitcoins at the end of April. This latest acquisition brings the company’s total holdings to 226,331 tokens worth just under $15 billion at the current bitcoin price of around $66,000. The company’s bitcoins were purchased at an average price of $36,798 each, or about $8.33 billion.
This most recent purchase followed the company’s $800 million investment convertible note offering for institutional investors. The offer size was originally $500, then increased to $700 million and finally closed at US$800 million. In March, the company added 9,245 BTC for $623 million after raising money in a similar debt issuance.
Saylor and MicroStrategy began accumulating the oldest and largest cryptocurrency in 2020 and have since tried to lead a movement to adopt BTC as a reserve asset for other corporate bonds. While some companies have added modest amounts of bitcoin to their balance sheet, notable is US-listed Semler Scientific (SMLR), which over the past three weeks has not only added bitcoin as a relatively sizable treasury asset, but – in similar way to MicroStrategy – is trying explore capital markets buy bitcoin in quantities much larger than the current market value would indicate.
MicroStrategy shares have risen about tenfold since the company’s bitcoin purchases began four years ago. Semler shares have risen more than 60% since the company disclosed its first bitcoin purchases in late May.
Last week, brokerage Bernstein started covering Microstrategy setting a price target of $2,890 for the company’s shares with an outperform rating. MSTR is currently up 2% in pre-market trading at $1,507.