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

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the fifteen brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $48.1667.

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Truist Financial cut their price target on Upstart from $59.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Compass Point upgraded shares of Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Zacks Research cut shares of Upstart from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $44.00 to $35.00 in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Upstart from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th.

Upstart Price Performance

Shares of Upstart stock opened at $28.61 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $39.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.12, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 2.44. Upstart has a fifty-two week low of $25.60 and a fifty-two week high of $87.30.

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

Upstart declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, February 19th that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Upstart

In other Upstart news, Director Kerry Whorton Cooper sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 23,934 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,196,700. This trade represents a 5.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 7,982 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.86, for a total transaction of $238,342.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 276,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,261,903.68. This represents a 2.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,981 shares of company stock valued at $357,201. Company insiders own 16.67% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Upstart by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,011,809 shares of the company’s stock valued at $219,166,000 after purchasing an additional 531,000 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Upstart by 154.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,206,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,955,000 after buying an additional 2,554,591 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,068,515 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,469,000 after buying an additional 26,734 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Upstart during the 4th quarter worth approximately $49,915,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased 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 acquiring an additional 232,595 shares in the last quarter. 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.