MicroStrategy stock MSTR hits 3-month high after CEO's exit

Michael J. Saylor announces to be devoted to strategising corporate Bitcoin adoption plans

By Shashank Bhardwaj

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor; Image: Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP

MicroStrategy Inc., a Nasdaq-listed American information technology company, saw its share price open at its highest in three months as word spread that its CEO and Bitcoin enthusiast, Michael Saylor, was stepping down. He reportedly left after a disappointing quarterly earnings report. Michael will now serve as the company's executive chairman. He will be responsible for the company's Bitcoin strategy. The company's president, Phong Le, will take over as the CEO of the company.

MSTR's share price jumped nearly 14.5 percent to $324.55 per share on the daily chart as soon as the news hit the market. This was the highest since May 6. The stock's intraday gains were part of a larger recovery that began on May 12 at $134. MSTR has grown by 142 percent since then, while the Nasdaq has grown by 26.81 percent during the same time period.

Michael's departure from the company's CEO position will allow the new CEO to focus fully on the company's enterprise. Meanwhile, Saylor will focus on developing corporate Bitcoin (BTC) adoption strategies. He confirmed his new role in a public statement made on August 2, "As Executive Chairman, I will be able to focus more on our Bitcoin acquisition strategy and related Bitcoin advocacy initiatives, while Phong will be empowered as CEO to manage overall corporate operations…believe that splitting the roles of chairman and CEO will enable us to better pursue our two corporate strategies of acquiring and holding bitcoin and growing our enterprise analytics software business."

He also posted a Tweet on Wednesday regarding this, "In my next job, I intend to focus more on #Bitcoin."

MicroStrategy has purchased 129,699 Bitcoin at an average price of $30,664 per coin since August 2020. The total value of the company's Bitcoin holdings was around $8 billion in November 2021, when Bitcoin reached its ATH (all-time high) of $68,000 per coin. However, the company reported $918.1 million in losses in its second quarter (Q2) earnings call, with $917.84 million attributable to the company's Bitcoin holdings. The company's significant Bitcoin exposure is thought to be one of the primary reasons for its poor quarterly performance.

The software company owns about 129,699 BTC, with the company's digital assets making a total worth of $1.988 billion at the end of Q2. Saylor further claimed that the company had performed quite well after adopting the Bitcoin strategy in the third quarter of 2020. He tweeted, "Since Microstrategy adopted a bitcoin strategy, its enterprise value is up +730% (+$5 billion) and MSTR is up +123%."

Bitcoin's performance will heavily influence MSTR's course for the rest of 2022. This is due to the fact that they have had a consistent positive correlation in recent years. Despite recent underperformance, the market anticipates massive future earnings growth from MicroStrategy.

The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash

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