Michael Saylor and Strategy (MSTR) Raise Cash to Fund Preferred Dividends

Facing questions from critics about its ability to fund dividends on its various classes of preferred stock, Strategy (MSTR) and its Executive Chairman Michael Saylor early Monday announced the formation of $1.44 billion U.S. dollar reserve.

The reserve was raised via the sales last week of common stock and the company initially intends to keep enough money in the reserve to fund at least twelve months of dividends, according to a press release. Strategy further intends to add to the reserve with the ultimate goal of covering 24 months or more of dividends.

CEO Phong Le noted the reserve currently covers 21 months of dividends.

New targets

Given the reality of the recent plunge in bitcoin BTC$86.115,39 prices (down another 5% to $86,000 on Monday morning) against company expectations for $150,000 at year-end, Strategy also adjusted its full-year profit and bitcoin yield targets.

Now assuming a year-end price range of $85,000-$110,000, Strategy is guiding to full-year net income ranging from a loss of $5.5 billion to gain of $6.3 billion.

The so-called bitcoin yield target has been cut to a range of 22%-26% versus the previous target of 30%.

The full-year bitcoin dollar gain target has been cut to $8.4 billion to $12.8 billion against the previous target of $20 billion.

Fresh bitcoin buys

The company also announced modest new bitcoin buys of 130 coins for $11.7 million, or $89,860 per BTC. That brings Strategy’s stack to 650,000 BTC acquired for $48.38 billion, or $74,436 per coin.

The purchase was funded via the sale last week of 8.214 million shares of common stock, which raised $1.478 billion. The bulk of that money went to fund the previously mentioned dollar reserve.

MSTR shares are lower by 4.4% in premarket trading alongside bitcoin’s steep overnight price decline.