IREN Ltd. (IREN), a bitcoin mining and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure firm, was downgraded by JPMorgan analyst Reginald Smith to Sell from Hold. While the Top analyst raised his price target to $24 from $16, it still implies a downside risk of about 40%. Smith cited growing concerns about valuation risk, despite the company’s expansion plans. Following the news, IREN stock was down about 13% during Friday’s trading.
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Here’s What Led to the Downgrade
Smith acknowledged IREN’s strong position in the bitcoin mining space, supported by its fleet efficiency and attractive power contracts.
He also noted that the firm is aggressively expanding its capabilities. It plans to expand its Cloud Services business by Q1 2026, supported by about 23,000 GPUs. Also, IREN is building out a 1.4 GW site slated to go live in April 2026, and is energizing its first 75MW HPC data center, Horizon 1.
Despite these positive developments, the analyst cautioned on valuation. Smith is concerned that the stock’s current price may already be factoring in a massive colocation deal for a data center exceeding 1 GW, which would require over $10 billion in capital expenditure.
He believes that while such a deal is possible in the future, it introduces more downside risk than upside potential at current valuation levels.
Analyst Views Remain Divided on IREN Stock
IREN has seen dramatic swings recently, fueled by both bullish and bearish analyst sentiments.
Earlier this week, the stock surged to an all-time high of $49.30 after a Top Bernstein analyst raised his price target to $75, citing IREN’s unique AI infrastructure strategy compared to other Bitcoin miners. Similarly, Arete Research and Roth Capital analysts also issued Buy ratings with targets of $78 and $82, respectively. These moves are in contrast with JPMorgan’s more cautious stance.
IREN’s shift from crypto mining to AI cloud services has drawn investor attention, especially with its plan to deploy 23,000 GPUs by Q1 2026 and a 1.4 GW site launching in April 2026. It must be noted that the company also reported mining 1,825 bitcoins last quarter, contributing to a 30% revenue jump.
Is IREN a Good Stock to Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on IREN stock based on eight Buys and three Holds assigned in the past three months. Further, the average IREN price target of $49.25 per share implies 21.91% upside potential.
