Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) shares gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday after Piper Sandler raised their price target on the stock from $28.00 to $31.00. The stock had previously closed at $23.87, but opened at $30.00. Piper Sandler currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Upstart shares last traded at $30.41, with a volume of 4,417,246 shares.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Upstart in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Upstart in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. BTIG Research started coverage on Upstart in a research report on Friday, June 7th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $14.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho upgraded Upstart from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $17.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $15.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Upstart news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.31, for a total transaction of $26,310.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 372,398 shares in the company, valued at $9,797,791.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Upstart news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.31, for a total transaction of $26,310.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 372,398 shares in the company, valued at $9,797,791.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Paul Gu sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.05, for a total value of $300,500.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 894,629 shares in the company, valued at $26,883,601.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 170,610 shares of company stock worth $4,704,553. Corporate insiders own 18.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Upstart

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its stake in shares of Upstart by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 11,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $482,000 after buying an additional 619 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Upstart by 1,106.7% during the first quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 97,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after buying an additional 89,219 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Upstart during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $19,017,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Upstart by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,013,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $286,589,000 after buying an additional 157,719 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Upstart by 3,532.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 329,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,473,000 after buying an additional 320,663 shares during the last quarter. 63.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Upstart Stock Up 28.6 %

The stock has a market cap of $2.70 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.76 and a beta of 1.97. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $24.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.95.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.74) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.80) by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $127.79 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $124.82 million. Upstart had a negative return on equity of 27.89% and a negative net margin of 32.59%. On average, research analysts expect that Upstart Holdings, Inc. will post -2.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.