Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Stephens lowered their price target on the stock from $55.00 to $40.00. The stock had previously closed at $46.24, but opened at $39.38. Stephens currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Upstart shares last traded at $40.1580, with a volume of 6,051,792 shares traded.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on UPST. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Upstart from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $93.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Piper Sandler set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Upstart in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Upstart in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Upstart in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on shares of Upstart from $82.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Upstart currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.08.

Insider Activity at Upstart

In related news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 13,473 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.12, for a total transaction of $823,469.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 297,904 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,207,892.48. This represents a 4.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Dave Girouard sold 41,667 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.93, for a total transaction of $2,705,438.31. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,416,227.02. This represents a 44.19% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 106,214 shares of company stock worth $6,803,558 in the last 90 days. 16.67% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Upstart

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. KADENSA CAPITAL Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Upstart in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $18,972,000. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Upstart by 70.8% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 74,134 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,412,000 after buying an additional 30,739 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D grew its stake in shares of Upstart by 44.0% in the 2nd quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 41,276 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,670,000 after buying an additional 12,617 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Upstart by 753.9% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,980 shares of the company’s stock valued at $597,000 after buying an additional 11,460 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in shares of Upstart in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $550,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Upstart Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $57.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $60.05. The firm has a market cap of $3.86 billion, a PE ratio of -502.39 and a beta of 2.26.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.09. Upstart had a negative net margin of 0.75% and a negative return on equity of 5.95%. The business had revenue of $257.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $225.35 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.17) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 101.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Upstart Holdings, Inc. will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

About Upstart

Upstart Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates a cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) lending platform in the United States. Its platform includes personal loans, automotive retail and refinance loans, home equity lines of credit, and small dollar loans that connects consumer demand for loans to its to bank and credit unions.