Mizuho Cuts Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Price Target to $51.00

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) had its target price lowered by Mizuho from $66.00 to $51.00 in a report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Citigroup lowered shares of Upstart from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Zacks Research downgraded Upstart from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Upstart in a research report on Monday, December 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $44.00 to $35.00 in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Compass Point upgraded Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $20.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Upstart has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $48.00.

Upstart Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:UPST opened at $24.77 on Thursday. Upstart has a 52 week low of $24.43 and a 52 week high of $87.30. The company’s fifty day moving average is $32.86 and its 200-day moving average is $43.27. The company has a market capitalization of $2.43 billion, a PE ratio of 58.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 2.44.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $288.54 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Upstart will post -0.03 EPS for the current year.

Upstart declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, February 19th that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 7,982 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 276,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,261,903.68. This represents a 2.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold 9,481 shares of company stock worth $282,201 in the last quarter. 16.67% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Upstart by 1,116.8% during the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 89,675 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,800,000 after acquiring an additional 82,305 shares during the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in Upstart in the third quarter valued at about $4,237,000. Citigroup Inc. increased its position in Upstart by 71.5% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 550,138 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,947,000 after purchasing an additional 229,315 shares during the period. Sepio Capital LP raised its holdings in Upstart by 42.0% during the 2nd quarter. Sepio Capital LP now owns 256,102 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,565,000 after purchasing an additional 75,802 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in Upstart by 31.5% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 971,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,370,000 after purchasing an additional 232,595 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Upstart Company Profile

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.