** Shares of crypto miners Cipher Mining CIFR.O and CleanSpark CLSK.O rise ~5% premarket

** J.P. Morgan upgrades stock ratings for both companies to "overweight" from "neutral"; raises CIFR's PT to $18 from $12

** JPM says recent decline in CIFR shares presents nice entry point for company with roughly 600 megawatts of computing capacity already contracted to major clients such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Fluidstack, backed by Google GOOGL.O

** "We think Cipher is well-positioned to sign additional deals at other approved sites (e.g. Stingray, 100 MW), which could drive additional medium-term upside," JPM says

** Brokerage says stock upgrade on CLSK is to credit company for ~200 MW of critical computing capacity at newly acquired 285 MW site in Texas

** Both companies on average are rated "buy", as per data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, CIFR up 205% while CLSK rise ~6%

(Reporting by Joel Jose in Bengaluru)

((mailto: joeljose@thomsonreuters.com))