Riot Platforms to Post Q2 Earnings: Is the Stock a Portfolio Must-Have?
RIOT readies for its Aug. 5 Q2 report facing weaker revenue and EPS expectations, but lease revenues and power credits could have helped offset key pressures.
Riot Platforms, Inc. RIOT is slated to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 5, before the market opens. The company’s quarterly results are likely to display a year-over-year decrease in revenues and earnings per share (EPS).
In the last reported quarter, this bitcoin miner reported a loss of $1.44 per share, wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 33 cents. The results were impacted by non-cash mark-to-market losses on RIOT’s Bitcoin holdings, and elevated depreciation and amortization expenses.
Over the preceding four quarters, RIOT’s EPS surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate twice and missed in the remaining period, the average miss being negative 130.56%. This is depicted in the graph below:
RIOT: Factors at Play and Q2 Projections
Riot Platforms’ second-quarter 2026 results are expected to reflect weaker Bitcoin-mining economics. Rising network difficulty, fewer Bitcoins mined and Bitcoin price volatility are likely to have pressured mining revenues and margins. Reported earnings may also have been affected by fair-value adjustments on Bitcoin holdings, as well as elevated depreciation and data-center development expenses.
The company’s use of Bitcoin sales to fund capital expenditures may have reduced its digital-asset holdings. Higher operating and maintenance costs related to the AMD capacity ramp-up, coupled with lower-margin tenant fit-out revenues, are also likely to have weighed on consolidated profitability. Engineering revenues may have remained under pressure as Riot reserved manufacturing capacity for its data-center projects.
On the positive side, the May delivery of the remaining 20 megawatts under the initial AMD lease is likely to have boosted high-margin operating lease revenues during the quarter. Ongoing tenant fit-out activity, power-curtailment credits and efficient electricity management may have provided additional support.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter revenues is pegged at $148.71 million, implying a 2.8% decrease from the prior-year quarter’s reported number.
RIOT’s activities in the to-be-reported quarter were inadequate in garnering analysts’ confidence. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter EPS has been revised southward to negative 39 cents over the past month. It suggests a significant downward change from the year-ago quarter’s tally.
What Our Quantitative Model Predicts for RIOT
Our proven model does not conclusively predict a surprise in terms of EPS for RIOT this quarter. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an EPS beat, which is not the case here.
RIOT has an Earnings ESP of -101.27% and currently carries a Zacks Rank of 5 (Strong Sell). You can uncover the best stocks before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
Stocks That Warrant a Look
Here are two stocks from the broader finance sector — Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. BAM and Ridgepost Capital, Inc. RPC— you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to report an EPS beat this quarter.
Brookfield Asset Management is slated to report quarterly numbers on Aug. 5. BAM has an Earnings ESP of +1.14% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Ridgepost Capital is slated to report quarterly numbers on Aug. 5. RPC has an Earnings ESP of +7.14% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
