Castle Hook Partners LP Purchases Shares of 48,545 Upstart Holdings, Inc. $UPST

Castle Hook Partners LP purchased a new stake in Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 48,545 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,123,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in UPST. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Upstart by 154.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,206,615 shares of the company's stock valued at $183,955,000 after acquiring an additional 2,554,591 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Upstart in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,915,000. Azora Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Upstart in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,580,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Upstart by 22.6% in the third quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. now owns 4,480,809 shares of the company's stock valued at $227,625,000 after purchasing an additional 826,974 shares during the period. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. bought a new position in shares of Upstart in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,188,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.01% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on UPST. Mizuho set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Upstart in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Upstart from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "sell (d)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. B. Riley Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Upstart from $66.00 to $54.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research raised shares of Upstart from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a "market underperform" rating on shares of Upstart in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Upstart has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $44.73.

Upstart Stock Performance

UPST stock opened at $30.46 on Thursday. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $30.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.38. Upstart Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $23.97 and a 52 week high of $87.30. The company has a market capitalization of $2.92 billion, a PE ratio of 80.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 2.26.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.39 by ($0.46). Upstart had a net margin of 4.34% and a return on equity of 5.63%. The business had revenue of $308.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $301.30 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 44.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Upstart Holdings, Inc. will post 0.92 EPS for the current year.

Upstart declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, February 19th that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 3.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Upstart news, CEO Paul Gu purchased 50,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $27.50 per share, for a total transaction of $1,375,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 70,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,925,000. The trade was a 250.00% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Andrea Blankmeyer sold 7,044 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.63, for a total transaction of $208,713.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 162,383 shares in the company, valued at $4,811,408.29. This trade represents a 4.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 33,346 shares of company stock valued at $991,672 in the last three months. Insiders own 17.29% 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.