Stephens Cuts Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Price Target to $40.00

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) had its price target dropped by analysts at Stephens from $55.00 to $40.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Stephens’ price target indicates a potential downside of 0.39% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on UPST. Piper Sandler set a $80.00 price objective on Upstart in a report on Monday, October 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Upstart from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $93.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Upstart in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Upstart in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Upstart from $82.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $74.08.

Upstart Price Performance

Shares of UPST stock traded down $6.08 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $40.16. The stock had a trading volume of 6,051,792 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,522,827. Upstart has a twelve month low of $31.40 and a twelve month high of $96.43. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $57.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $60.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.86 billion, a PE ratio of -502.39 and a beta of 2.26.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $257.29 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $225.35 million. Upstart had a negative return on equity of 5.95% and a negative net margin of 0.75%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 101.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.17) EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Upstart will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Upstart news, insider Natalia Mirgorodskaya sold 1,439 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.21, for a total transaction of $99,593.19. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 21,081 shares in the company, valued at $1,459,016.01. This trade represents a 6.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Paul Gu sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total value of $343,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,147,156 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,706,373.16. This trade represents a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 106,214 shares of company stock worth $6,803,558 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 16.67% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Upstart

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. KADENSA CAPITAL Ltd bought a new position in Upstart in the 1st quarter worth approximately $18,972,000. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Upstart by 70.8% during the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 74,134 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,412,000 after purchasing an additional 30,739 shares during the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its stake in Upstart by 44.0% during the 2nd quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 41,276 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,670,000 after purchasing an additional 12,617 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Upstart by 753.9% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,980 shares of the company’s stock valued at $597,000 after buying an additional 11,460 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in shares of Upstart in the first quarter valued at about $550,000. 63.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Upstart Company Profile

Upstart Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates a cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) lending platform in the United States. Its platform includes personal loans, automotive retail and refinance loans, home equity lines of credit, and small dollar loans that connects consumer demand for loans to its to bank and credit unions.