Marathon Digital, a Bitcoin miner, fell short of revenue estimates for the first quarter of 2024 due to unfavorable weather conditions and equipment breakdowns. Despite an impressive 223% increase in Q1 revenues compared to the previous year, reaching $165.2 million, the company missed the $193.9 million estimate by 14.80%.

The firm managed to mine 2,811 BTC during the quarter, equivalent to $176.7 million at present value, representing a 28% year-on-year increase. However, this was a 34% decline compared to the 4,242 BTC mined in Q4 of 2023.

During an earnings call on May 9, Marathon CEO Fred Thiel attributed the production issues to unexpected equipment failures, particularly transformers at third-party hosted sites, utility company transmission line maintenance, and higher-than-anticipated weather-related constraints across multiple locations. The bad weather affected the Garden City site in central Texas and other sites, including one in Texas that the company acquired on April 2.

Despite these challenges, the company reported that it was operating at a record high of 27 exahashes per second (EH/s) and that it expected to increase this rate to 50 EH/s by the end of the year, up from the previously set target of 35 to 37 EH/s.

Marathon’s net income for the first quarter increased by 184% year-on-year to $337.2 million, translating to $1.26 earnings per share, which surpassed the $0.02 Zacks estimate. This increase in income was largely due to the adoption of new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rules. These new accounting rules enabled the company to recognize the $488.8 million quarterly paper gain on the 17,320 BTC it held as of March 31.

As of May 9, Marathon Digital’s shares closed at $19.65, down by 2.19%, with an additional 1% decrease in after-hours trading, according to Google Finance. The share price has dropped by 14.30% year-to-date, with a high of $31 in February.

Recently, on May 7, Marathon was announced to join the S&P SmallCap 600 index, which monitors U.S. companies with a market capitalization between $1 billion and $6.7 billion. These companies must have demonstrated profitability in both the most recent quarter and the preceding four quarters.

The performance of Marathon Digital in the first quarter has seen fluctuations due to various factors, but the company remains optimistic about meeting its future targets.