What happened
Shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR 0.04%) rose 21.6% in February, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. With most companies you look for business results and developments, but this company increased its Bitcoin (BTC +0.15%) connection during the month. And with the price of Bitcoin rising, MicroStrategy stock rose as well.
So what
MicroStrategy adopted a new corporate policy late in 2020: All cash not needed for operations is to be held in Bitcoin. But the company didn't stop there. It's issued convertible notes with the express purpose of buying more Bitcoin. In February, MicroStrategy employed the strategy again, issuing $1.05 billion in convertible notes.
Image source: Getty Images.
With that capital, MicroStrategy acquired over 19,000 new Bitcoins, taking its total to 90,531. How many will the company buy? Apparently, more. On March 1, MicroStrategy announced it had bought 328 more Bitcoins with $15 million it had lying around. As of this writing, the company had 90,859 Bitcoins with an average acquisition price of $24,063.
Considering the price of Bitcoin was going up during February, it's not surprising to see MicroStrategy's stock rose as well.
Now what
MicroStrategy stock is becoming a tough investment. With each new purchase of Bitcoin, its business results matter less and less. Perhaps you believe the future price of Bitcoin will be higher, but in that case, why buy MicroStrategy stock? Just buy Bitcoin.
However, there could be an underappreciated benefit from MicroStrategy's Bitcoin strategy. In the conference call to discuss fourth-quarter results, CFO Phong Le said its Bitcoin strategy "has made MicroStrategy a thought leader in the cryptocurrency market and generated great interest in MicroStrategy as a corporation." You wouldn't infer this from the company's 2020 results -- revenue was down for the year. However, if it's true that buzz is building for MicroStrategy's business, then maybe this stock can continue to generate market-beating returns.
