CORZ Stock Falls On Lone Wall Street Downgrade – Analyst Hikes Targets For CLSK, CIFR, HUT

• Cipher Mining, CleanSpark, and Hut 8 received higher price targets in Keefe Bruyette’s revision ahead of second-quarter earnings.
• Riot Platforms and TeraWulf saw modest price target reductions but retained ‘Outperform’ ratings.
• Keefe Bruyette said demand for HPC infrastructure remains strong but prefers miners serving hyperscalers and investment-grade enterprise customers over AI lab-focused operators.

Bitcoin (BTC) miners expanding into AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure saw a fresh round of Wall Street rating changes on Monday, with Core Scientific (CORZ) emerging as the only company to receive a downgrade in an otherwise largely constructive outlook ahead of second-quarter earnings.

Keefe Bruyette downgraded CORZ stock to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ and trimmed the price target to $25 from $28, as per TheFly. CORZ stock fell more than 1% in pre-market trade, after a drop of over 5% in the previous session, underperforming its peers. Retail sentiment on Stockwits around the company remained in ‘neutral’ territory over the past day.  

Why Core Scientific Was The Only Downgrade

Analyst Stephen Glagola said much of Core Scientific's near- to medium-term leasing potential already appears reflected in the stock price. He added that confidence in the company's ability to secure new lease agreements has moderated, with expected deals taking longer than anticipated to materialize.

The analyst cited elevated execution risk heading into the second half of 2026 as the primary reason for the downgrade.

Across the broader sector, Keefe Bruyette said demand for HPC colocation capacity remains robust, but the firm is becoming increasingly selective due to funding risks and what it described as "model-layer risk" among AI lab customers.

The firm said it prefers companies with long-term contracts tied to hyperscalers and investment-grade enterprise customers, adding that the recent pullback across AI infrastructure miners reflects a "pipeline valuation reset" rather than weakening fundamentals.

CIFR, CLSK And HUT Win Higher Price Targets

Cipher Mining (CIFR), CleanSpark (CLSK), and Hut 8 (HUT) all got price target increases while keeping ‘Outperform’ ratings. The price target on CIFR’s stock was raised to $32 from $27. Meanwhile, the target on CLSK’s stock was increased to $25 from $16, and Hut 8's to $157 from $138. 

CIFR’s stock gained more than 5% in pre-market trade, while HUT’s stock climbed more than 4% and CLSK’s stock rose around 3.6%. 

The outlook on TeraWulf (WULF) and Riot Platforms (RIOT) moved in the opposite direction, with Keefe Bruyette trimming the price target on WULF’s stock to $30 from $33 and on RIOT’s stock to $35 from $37. It kept an ‘Outperform’ rating on both. However, both firms gained over 3% each in pre-market trade.

Crypto Rally Lifts Treasury Stocks

Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) led the cryptocurrency market higher on Monday, helping lift Bitcoin back above the $65,000 mark and fueling gains in crypto-linked stocks.

Ethereum’s price rose 4.5% in the last 24 hours, stopping just short of the $2,000 mark. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price rose 1.2% in the last 24 hours to around $65,300, after dipping to $63,000 over the weekend. 

Retail sentiment on Stockwits around the leading altcoin trended in ‘bullish’ territory over the past day. Sentiment around the largest Ethereum-backed treasury, Bitcoin Immersion Technologies (BMNR0, also trended in ‘bullish’ territory over the past day. BMNR’s stock rose as much as 6% in pre-market trade on Monday after Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest reportedly added more than 5,000 shares to its flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK).

Meanwhile, the largest corporate treasury with Bitcoin on its balance sheet, Strategy (MSTR), also rallied with the broader market. MSTR’s stock rose as much as 3% in pre-market trade with retail traders watching whether executive chairman Michael Saylor would announce another Bitcoin sale, Bitcoin buy, or keep the status quo in the firm’s weekly 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Fellow Bitcoin-backed digital treasury Sharplink Gaming (SBET) also traded in the green. SBET’s stock rose more than 5% in pre-market trade. Retail sentiment around MSTR on Stockwits dropped to ‘bearish’ from ‘neutral’ territory over the past day, while sentiment around SBET remained in the ‘bearish’ zone.

Read also: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's First X Post Backs Open-Weight AI Alongside Meta, Microsoft, Palantir 

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com