Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Consensus "Hold": Sixteen analysts average a Hold rating on Upstart (3 sell, 7 hold, 6 buy) with a one-year target price of about $48.
• Recent results show a beat—Q reported $0.17 EPS vs. $0.15 expected and revenue of $296.1M (up 35.2% YoY)—but the stock trades around $34.57 with a market cap of $3.31B and a high P/E (~82), and analysts project -$0.03 EPS for the current year.
• Corporate moves and ownership: the board authorized a $100 million buyback (up to 3.2% of shares), insiders have sold shares recently, and institutional investors hold about 63% of the company, with Morgan Stanley notably increasing its stake.

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the sixteen analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $48.00.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on UPST. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Upstart in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Zacks Research upgraded Upstart from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of Upstart in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Upstart from $66.00 to $51.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. Finally, Citigroup lowered shares of Upstart from a "buy" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th.

Upstart Price Performance

Upstart stock opened at $34.57 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $28.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 82.31, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 2.16. Upstart has a 52-week low of $23.97 and a 52-week high of $87.30.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $296.09 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $288.54 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.26 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 35.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Upstart will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Transactions at Upstart

In related news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 7,982 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.86, for a total value of $238,342.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 276,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,261,903.68. This represents a 2.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold 9,481 shares of company stock valued at $282,201 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 16.67% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Upstart

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 154.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,206,615 shares of the company's stock worth $183,955,000 after buying an additional 2,554,591 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Upstart in the 4th quarter worth approximately $49,915,000. Azora Capital LP acquired a new stake in Upstart during the fourth quarter worth $38,580,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Upstart by 22.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. now owns 4,480,809 shares of the company's stock valued at $227,625,000 after acquiring an additional 826,974 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. acquired a new stake in Upstart during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,188,000. Institutional investors own 63.01% of the company's stock.

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.

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