Strategy vs. IREN: Which Bitcoin-Focused Stock is a Buy Now?

Core Insights - Strategy (MSTR) and IREN Limited (IREN) are prominent players in the bitcoin sector, with MSTR being the largest bitcoin treasury company and IREN focusing on bitcoin mining infrastructure [1][2] Group 1: MSTR Overview - MSTR holds 628,791 bitcoins and anticipates $20 billion in gains if bitcoin reaches $150,000 by year-end [2][8] - The company reported a bitcoin yield of 19.7% at the end of Q2 2025, with year-to-date gains of $13.2 billion [2] - MSTR's disciplined capital raising strategy has led to $10.7 billion in equities and $7.6 billion in fixed income securities issued year-to-date [3] - Subscription revenues increased by 44% year-over-year to $48 million in Q2 2025, making up 41.9% of total revenues [4] - MSTR expects operating income of $34 billion and net income of $24 billion for 2025 [4] - The consensus estimate for MSTR's 2025 loss is $15.73 per share, unchanged over the past 60 days [10] Group 2: IREN Overview - IREN Limited achieved a hashrate growth of 326% year-over-year in Q3 fiscal 2025, reaching a target of 50 EH/s [5] - The company generates approximately $830 million in annualized hardware profit from its hashrate [5] - Hardware profit increased by 28.7% month-over-month in July to $63.3 million [5] - IREN's AI Cloud operations are expanding, with revenues rising 33% year-over-year to $3.6 million in Q3 fiscal 2025 [6] - The company is launching Horizon 1, a 50MW liquid-cooled data center for AI and high-performance computing, expected to be operational in Q4 2025 [7] - IREN's earnings consensus for 2025 has improved by eight cents to 14 cents per share over the past 60 days [11] Group 3: Stock Performance and Valuation - Year-to-date, MSTR shares have appreciated by 18.4%, while IREN shares have surged by 107.1% [12] - MSTR trades at a Price/Book ratio of 2X, compared to IREN's 2.58X [15] - Both companies are considered overvalued, with Value Scores of F for MSTR and D for IREN [18] Group 4: Investment Recommendation - IREN Limited is viewed as a better investment opportunity compared to MSTR, with a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy) versus MSTR's Zacks Rank of 4 (Sell) [19]