Analyzing Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) & Beneficient (NASDAQ:BENF)

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) and Beneficient (NASDAQ:BENF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Risk & Volatility

Upstart has a beta of 2.26, suggesting that its stock price is 126% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Beneficient has a beta of 0.01, suggesting that its stock price is 99% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

63.0% of Upstart shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.6% of Beneficient shares are held by institutional investors. 17.3% of Upstart shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 10.1% of Beneficient shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Upstart and Beneficient, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Upstart	3	7	7	0	2.24
Beneficient	1	0	0	0	1.00

Upstart presently has a consensus target price of $44.73, indicating a potential upside of 46.73%. Given Upstart’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Upstart is more favorable than Beneficient.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Upstart and Beneficient”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Upstart	$1.04 billion	2.80	$53.60 million	$0.38	80.23
Beneficient	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Upstart has higher revenue and earnings than Beneficient.

Profitability

This table compares Upstart and Beneficient’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Upstart	4.34%	5.63%	1.49%
Beneficient	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Upstart beats Beneficient on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. Upstart Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.

About Beneficient

Beneficient, a technology-enabled financial services company, provides liquidity solutions and related trustee, custody and trust administrative services to participants in the alternative asset industry in the United States. It operates through Ben Liquidity, Ben Custody, and Customer ExAlt Trusts segments. The company offers Ben AltAccess platform for secure, online, and end-to-end delivery of each of the Ben business unit products and services, including upload documents, and work through tasks, and complete their transactions with standardized transaction agreements. It also provides Ben Liquidity, which offers alternative asset liquidity and fiduciary financing products; Ben Custody that provides custody and trust administration services to trustees and document custodian services to customers; and Ben Markets, which provides broker-dealer and transfer agency services. In addition, the company provides Ben Insurance Services, which offers insurance products and services; and Ben Data that provides data collection, evaluation, and analytics products and services. It serves individual and institutional investors, wealth advisors, and general partners. Beneficient is based in Dallas, Texas.