Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the sixteen analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $48.00.

UPST has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Upstart from $59.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Upstart from $66.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Upstart in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, BTIG Research raised shares of Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $43.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 16th.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 7,982 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.86, for a total transaction of $238,342.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 276,688 shares in the company, valued at $8,261,903.68. This trade represents a 2.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,481 shares of company stock valued at $282,201. 16.67% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Upstart

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Clearstead Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Upstart in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Upstart during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Quarry LP boosted its position in Upstart by 749.2% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 442 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in Upstart by 132.2% in the 3rd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 439 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in shares of Upstart in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Upstart Stock Performance

UPST opened at $25.36 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.49 billion, a PE ratio of 60.38, a P/E/G ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 2.16. Upstart has a one year low of $23.97 and a one year high of $87.30. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $31.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.48.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $296.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $288.54 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.26 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 35.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Upstart will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Upstart declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, February 19th that permits the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 3.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Upstart Company Profile

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.