Stock Buyback Plan Authorized by Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST)

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, February 19th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Upstart Stock Down 4.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:UPST opened at $29.29 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 2.38. Upstart has a 12-month low of $29.12 and a 12-month high of $87.30. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.48.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $296.09 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $288.54 million. Upstart had a return on equity of 6.30% and a net margin of 5.13%.The firm’s revenue was up 35.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.26 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Upstart will post -0.03 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on UPST shares. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Upstart from $80.00 to $56.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Upstart in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Upstart from $59.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Upstart from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Natalia Mirgorodskaya sold 762 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.91, for a total value of $29,649.42. Following the transaction, the insider owned 26,398 shares in the company, valued at $1,027,146.18. The trade was a 2.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kerry Whorton Cooper sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $75,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 23,934 shares in the company, valued at $1,196,700. This trade represents a 5.90% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 16.67% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.