Head-To-Head Analysis: Beneficient (NASDAQ:BENF) versus Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST)

Beneficient (NASDAQ:BENF) and Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

90.6% of Beneficient shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.0% of Upstart shares are owned by institutional investors. 10.1% of Beneficient shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.3% of Upstart shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Beneficient and Upstart’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Beneficient	N/A	N/A	N/A
Upstart	4.34%	5.63%	1.49%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Beneficient and Upstart”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Beneficient	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Upstart	$1.04 billion	2.96	$53.60 million	$0.38	84.84

Upstart has higher revenue and earnings than Beneficient.

Volatility & Risk

Beneficient has a beta of 0.01, indicating that its stock price is 99% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Upstart has a beta of 2.26, indicating that its stock price is 126% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Beneficient and Upstart, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Beneficient	1	0	0	0	1.00
Upstart	3	7	7	0	2.24

Upstart has a consensus price target of $44.73, suggesting a potential upside of 38.75%. Given Upstart’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Upstart is more favorable than Beneficient.

Summary

Upstart beats Beneficient on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Beneficient

Beneficient, a technology-enabled financial services company, provides liquidity solutions and related trustee, custody and trust administrative services to participants in the alternative asset industry in the United States. It operates through Ben Liquidity, Ben Custody, and Customer ExAlt Trusts segments. The company offers Ben AltAccess platform for secure, online, and end-to-end delivery of each of the Ben business unit products and services, including upload documents, and work through tasks, and complete their transactions with standardized transaction agreements. It also provides Ben Liquidity, which offers alternative asset liquidity and fiduciary financing products; Ben Custody that provides custody and trust administration services to trustees and document custodian services to customers; and Ben Markets, which provides broker-dealer and transfer agency services. In addition, the company provides Ben Insurance Services, which offers insurance products and services; and Ben Data that provides data collection, evaluation, and analytics products and services. It serves individual and institutional investors, wealth advisors, and general partners. Beneficient is based in Dallas, Texas.

About Upstart

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. Upstart Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.