Needham & Company LLC Cuts Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Price Target to $40.00

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) had its price objective lowered by Needham & Company LLC from $56.00 to $40.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock.

UPST has been the subject of a number of other reports. Citizens Jmp restated a “market underperform” rating and issued a $20.00 target price on shares of Upstart in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Upstart from $59.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $45.00 price target on shares of Upstart in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Upstart from $88.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.17.

Upstart Stock Down 2.9%

UPST stock opened at $27.78 on Wednesday. Upstart has a twelve month low of $25.60 and a twelve month high of $87.30. The company has a market cap of $2.72 billion, a PE ratio of 66.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 2.44. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.75.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.02. Upstart had a return on equity of 6.30% and a net margin of 5.13%.The firm had revenue of $296.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $288.54 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Upstart will post -0.03 EPS for the current year.

Upstart declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, February 19th that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 3.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Upstart

In related news, Director Kerry Whorton Cooper sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $75,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 23,934 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,196,700. The trade was a 5.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 7,982 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.86, for a total value of $238,342.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 276,688 shares in the company, valued at $8,261,903.68. This trade represents a 2.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,981 shares of company stock worth $357,201. 16.67% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Upstart

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in UPST. Rare Wolf Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Upstart during the 4th quarter worth about $616,000. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC bought a new position in Upstart during the 4th quarter valued at about $752,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in Upstart by 41.3% during the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 45,167 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,975,000 after purchasing an additional 13,205 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Upstart in the fourth quarter valued at about $380,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Upstart during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

About Upstart

Upstart Holdings, Inc operates a cloud-based lending marketplace that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to assess borrower creditworthiness. The company partners with banks and credit unions, providing its proprietary AI models and underwriting platform to facilitate consumer credit products. By focusing on non?traditional data points—such as education, employment history and other real?time indicators—Upstart seeks to improve approval rates and lower loss rates compared with conventional credit scoring methods.

Upstart’s core offering centers on unsecured personal loans, which borrowers can use for purposes such as debt consolidation, home improvements or major purchases.