Iris Energy (NASDAQ:IREN) stock has climbed 1.9% in Tuesday trading after H.C. Wainwright analyst Mike Colonnese starts new coverage of the ESG-focused bitcoin miner with a Buy rating, on the basis of its control over its data centers and energy sources."We believe Iris' proprietary data center designs provide a sustainable competitive advantage, as evidenced by consistently high and above-peer operating efficiency. Iris also has one of the most seasoned and capable management teams in the industry, in our view," Colonnese wrote in a note to clients.The company also differs from its peers in that it consistently sells all the bitcoin (BTC-USD) it mines, "allowing for consistently positive operating cash flow and relatively less reliance on external, dilutive financing" compared with miners that hold onto the BTC they mine, he said.He expects the stock to continue to outperform its peers when bitcoin (BTC-USD) prices are declining. In Tuesday trading, BTC has slipped 1.7% in the past 24 hours, slipping to $19.8K. The world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap weakened after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will continue to raise rates until inflation gets under control.Colonnese's Buy rating on the stock compares with the average Wall Street rating of Strong Buy.Last week, Citigroup resumed coverage of Iris Energy (IREN) with a Buy/High Risk rating.
