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

Shares of Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) have been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the sixteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $45.7857.

A number of analysts recently commented on UPST shares. Citigroup cut Upstart from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Mizuho set a $45.00 price objective on Upstart in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Truist Financial set a $40.00 price objective on Upstart in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on Upstart from $40.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Upstart from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th.

Upstart Trading Up 4.2%

Upstart stock opened at $31.00 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.97 billion, a PE ratio of 81.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 2.26. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $29.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.78. Upstart has a 52 week low of $23.97 and a 52 week high of $87.30.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.46). The company had revenue of $308.21 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $301.30 million. Upstart had a return on equity of 5.63% and a net margin of 4.34%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 44.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.30 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Upstart will post 0.92 EPS for the current year.

Upstart announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, February 19th that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 3.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Upstart

In other Upstart news, Director Dave Girouard purchased 170,240 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $29.37 per share, with a total value of $4,999,948.80. Following the purchase, the director owned 8,512,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $250,025,077.17. This represents a 2.04% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Paul Gu purchased 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $1,925,000. The trade was a 250.00% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 18,346 shares of company stock worth $535,522 in the last quarter. 17.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Upstart

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new position in shares of Upstart in the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,237,000. Citigroup Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Upstart by 71.5% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 550,138 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,947,000 after purchasing an additional 229,315 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Upstart by 31.5% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 971,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,370,000 after purchasing an additional 232,595 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its stake in shares of Upstart by 1,066.4% in the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 147,316 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,484,000 after purchasing an additional 134,686 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Upstart in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,218,000. 63.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.