Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to Sell

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. B. Riley Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Upstart from $66.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $37.00 target price on shares of Upstart in a report on Monday, June 15th. Truist Financial set a $40.00 target price on Upstart in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Upstart from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $35.00 price target on Upstart in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.73.

Upstart Stock Performance

NASDAQ:UPST opened at $33.66 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 88.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 2.26. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $31.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $34.82. Upstart has a 52 week low of $23.97 and a 52 week high of $87.30.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.46). The business had revenue of $308.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $301.30 million. Upstart had a net margin of 4.34% and a return on equity of 5.63%. Upstart’s revenue was up 44.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.30 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Upstart will post 0.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Upstart news, CEO Paul Gu acquired 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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. This trade represents a 250.00% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Natalia Mirgorodskaya sold 974 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.99, for a total value of $28,236.26. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 37,374 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,083,472.26. This represents a 2.54% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,346 shares of company stock worth $991,672. Insiders own 17.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,011,809 shares of the company’s stock worth $219,166,000 after buying an additional 531,000 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Upstart by 154.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,206,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,955,000 after acquiring an additional 2,554,591 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Upstart by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,068,515 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,469,000 after acquiring an additional 26,734 shares during the period. Halter Ferguson Financial Inc. increased its position in Upstart by 253.3% during the first quarter. Halter Ferguson Financial Inc. now owns 1,467,360 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,638,000 after acquiring an additional 1,052,039 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Upstart during the 4th quarter valued at $49,915,000. 63.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.