Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. Buys Shares of 5,400 Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST)

Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. acquired a new stake in Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 5,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $332,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in UPST. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 5,511 shares of the company's stock valued at $339,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 24.2% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 882 shares of the company's stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. Bailard Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 38,759 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,386,000 after purchasing an additional 212 shares in the last quarter. Crestline Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Crestline Management LP now owns 10,004 shares of the company's stock valued at $616,000 after purchasing an additional 364 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 31.3% in the fourth quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 1,575 shares of the company's stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.01% of the company's stock.

Upstart Price Performance

UPST traded up $1.71 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $45.63. 3,370,806 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,730,355. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $45.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $60.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -31.25 and a beta of 2.39. Upstart Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $20.60 and a 52 week high of $96.43.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $213.37 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $201.08 million. Upstart had a negative return on equity of 25.87% and a negative net margin of 20.20%. Upstart's quarterly revenue was up 67.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.31) EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Upstart Holdings, Inc. will post -0.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Upstart

In related news, insider Natalia Mirgorodskaya sold 764 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.96, for a total value of $35,877.44. Following the sale, the insider now owns 25,963 shares in the company, valued at $1,219,222.48. This represents a 2.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 13,512 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.97, for a total value of $634,658.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 311,356 shares in the company, valued at $14,624,391.32. The trade was a 4.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 16.67% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on UPST shares. B. Riley upgraded Upstart from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $49.00 to $105.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays boosted their target price on Upstart from $42.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Upstart in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Upstart from $70.00 to $50.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Upstart from $87.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Upstart has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $63.81.

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.