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Benchmark reiterates Buy on Strategy as Bitcoin purchases pause

Strategy’s five-week pause in Bitcoin purchases has pushed its U.S. dollar reserve to $3.75 billion, giving the company enough liquidity to cover its stated annual interest and preferred-stock dividend obligations for more than two years without selling Bitcoin, according to its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Benchmark Equity Research responded by reiterating its Buy rating on Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, and maintaining a $570 price target for MSTR shares. The target was about 522% above Friday’s $91.67 closing price, after the stock fell 2.1% during the session.

The firm’s growing cash position marks a change in the immediate rhythm of its Bitcoin treasury strategy. Strategy has built its reputation around frequent, often large Bitcoin purchases financed through equity and debt issuance. Its latest disclosure shows management has instead prioritized liquidity, even as it retains one of the largest corporate Bitcoin holdings in the market.

During the week ended July 26, Strategy sold roughly 5.4 million MSTR shares and raised $544.5 million, the SEC filing showed. The company did not report a corresponding Bitcoin purchase, extending the buying hiatus to five consecutive weeks.

Cash reserve grows as Bitcoin purchases stop

Strategy’s last reported Bitcoin acquisition came on June 22, when it bought 520 BTC. Since then, the company has not announced another purchase, making the current interruption its longest since it adopted Bitcoin as its central treasury asset.

The company holds 843,775 BTC acquired at an average cost of $75,476 per coin, according to the filing. That position represents more than 4% of Bitcoin’s fixed maximum supply of 21 million coins. At the valuation cited in the disclosure, the holdings are worth roughly $54 billion.

That scale leaves Strategy closely tied to Bitcoin’s market performance, while its equity and financing structure introduces another layer of risk. The company has used stock sales, convertible debt and preferred shares to expand its Bitcoin holdings over several years. Building a larger cash reserve gives it more flexibility to meet fixed obligations if Bitcoin prices fall sharply or capital markets become less receptive to new fundraising.

Strategy’s annual debt-interest payments and preferred-stock dividends total about $1.7 billion, based on figures disclosed by the company. A $3.75 billion dollar reserve would cover those obligations for about 26 months, assuming the costs remain at that level and the company does not deploy the funds elsewhere.

The reserve does not alter the size of Strategy’s existing Bitcoin position, but it reduces the pressure to rely immediately on further share issuance or Bitcoin sales to satisfy near-term corporate commitments. That distinction is particularly relevant for a company whose market value and financing capacity have often moved closely with Bitcoin sentiment.

Benchmark maintains bullish view despite the pause

Benchmark’s $570 target indicates that the research firm continues to view Strategy as offering substantial upside despite the recent pause in purchases and Friday’s decline in MSTR shares.

The target also underscores how analysts following the company generally assess MSTR differently from a conventional software stock. Strategy’s operating software business contributes revenue and cash flow, but the stock’s valuation has increasingly been driven by its Bitcoin holdings, its ability to raise capital and the premium that traders assign to its treasury model.

A pause in Bitcoin buying could temporarily limit one of the company’s most closely watched catalysts: announcements that it has raised capital and added thousands of BTC to its balance sheet. Strategy’s purchases have regularly drawn attention because of their size and because the company has been among the most persistent institutional buyers of Bitcoin.

Yet the company’s latest financing activity shows that its capital-raising machinery has not stopped. It raised more than half a billion dollars through MSTR share sales during the latest reported week, while choosing to retain the proceeds as cash rather than immediately converting them into Bitcoin.

That approach places greater emphasis on balance-sheet resilience. Strategy can preserve funds for interest, dividend payments, debt management, acquisitions or future Bitcoin purchases, depending on market conditions and management’s capital-allocation decisions.

Less predictable corporate demand for Bitcoin

Strategy’s purchase announcements have often served as a visible indicator of corporate Bitcoin demand. With no new acquisition reported for five weeks, the market has lost a regular source of publicly disclosed buying from one of Bitcoin’s largest holders.

The absence of purchases does not establish that Bitcoin demand has weakened across the market. Strategy is only one buyer, even if an unusually large and transparent one. Its pause does, though, remove a recurring event that traders have used to gauge institutional appetite and to anticipate potential changes in the company’s Bitcoin-per-share exposure.

The company has not indicated in the provided filing details that it is abandoning its Bitcoin treasury strategy. Its 843,775 BTC position remains intact, and its latest equity issuance has added to available liquidity rather than reducing its ability to buy coins later.

For MSTR shareholders, the more immediate question is whether cash accumulation becomes a short-term holding pattern or a reserve designed to support another round of Bitcoin purchases. The answer will likely depend on Bitcoin prices, Strategy’s access to financing and the company’s upcoming obligations under its debt and preferred-share structure.

Benchmark’s unchanged Buy rating suggests the firm sees the larger Bitcoin treasury strategy as intact despite the break in purchases. For now, Strategy has shifted from rapidly expanding its Bitcoin stack to strengthening the cash buffer behind it—a move that gives the company more room to manage its $1.7 billion annual fixed financing costs while retaining its unusually large exposure to Bitcoin.


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