Citi Maintains "Sell" Rating for MicroStrategy Shares After 150% Price Gain

While many within the Bitcoin space lauded MicroStrategy for its bold move into Bitcoin in 2020, an analyst at Citi was less impressed by the business intelligence firm's decision to make Bitcoin its primary treasury reserve asset. In early December, Citi's Tyler Radke expressed concerns over what he believed to be a "disproportionate focus on Bitcoin" and downgraded his rating for MicroStrategy's shares (MSTR) to a "sell."

While MSTR initially slid over 5 percent following the rating, it has since continued venturing upwards, from $289.45 on the day the downgrade was announced to $741.19 at press time.

MSTR's considerable price appreciation changed no minds at Citi though, as on January 29th, Radke maintained his sell rating for the share. "Maintaining" ratings simply means that an analyst has maintained their evaluation of a share, which, in MicroStrategy's case, is a "sell" evaluation.

Citigroup analyst Radke's history of MSTR ratings. Source: TipRanks

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor meanwhile appears to show little interest in Citi's rating, as he is in the middle of a summit focused on helping other corporations follow in MicroStrategy's footsteps and add Bitcoin to their balance sheet. Titled "Bitcoin for Corporations," the online event is taking place over the course of two days; leading up to the summit, Saylor Tweeted that MicroStrategy would "open source" its "Bitcoin corporate playbook," which consisted of various documents and research "covering governance, legal, financial, technical & accounting considerations."

On Monday, MicroStrategy announced it had purchased an additional $10 million worth of bitcoin, bringing the firm's total holdings to approximately 71,079 bitcoin.