Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the fifteen ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $47.7692.

Several analysts have issued reports on UPST shares. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Upstart from $59.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Zacks Research downgraded Upstart from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Upstart in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Compass Point upgraded Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $20.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market underperform” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of Upstart in a research report on Friday, February 13th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 7,982 shares of Upstart stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.86, for a total value of $238,342.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 276,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,261,903.68. The trade was a 2.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 9,481 shares of company stock valued at $282,201. 16.67% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Clearstead Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Upstart in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Bayforest Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Upstart during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Quarry LP grew its stake in Upstart by 749.2% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 442 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in Upstart by 132.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 771 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 439 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Upstart during the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. Institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Upstart Price Performance

Shares of Upstart stock opened at $26.09 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.56 billion, a PE ratio of 62.12, a P/E/G ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 2.44. Upstart has a 1 year low of $24.93 and a 1 year high of $87.30. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $33.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.87.

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

Upstart declared 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 often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.