Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST)

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $40.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target suggests a potential upside of 55.28% from the company’s current price.

UPST has been the subject of a number of other research reports. 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 note on Tuesday, February 17th. Citigroup cut Upstart from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Upstart from $59.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Zacks Research lowered Upstart from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Upstart in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Upstart currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.17.

Upstart Stock Performance

Shares of UPST opened at $25.76 on Wednesday. Upstart has a fifty-two week low of $25.60 and a fifty-two week high of $87.30. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $46.72. The stock has a market cap of $2.53 billion, a PE ratio of 61.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 2.44.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $296.09 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $288.54 million. Upstart had a net margin of 5.13% and a return on equity of 6.30%. The business’s revenue was up 35.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Upstart will post -0.03 EPS for the current year.

Upstart declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, February 19th that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Upstart news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 7,982 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $8,261,903.68. This trade represents a 2.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,481 shares of company stock worth $282,201. Company insiders own 16.67% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of UPST. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Upstart by 154.6% during 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 last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Upstart in the 4th quarter worth about $49,915,000. Azora Capital LP purchased a new position in Upstart in the 4th quarter worth about $38,580,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Upstart by 22.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. now owns 4,480,809 shares of the company’s stock valued at $227,625,000 after acquiring an additional 826,974 shares during the period. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. bought a new position in Upstart during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,188,000. 63.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Upstart News

Here are the key news stories impacting Upstart this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Management announced plans to apply for a national bank charter — a strategic shift that could unlock lower cost deposits, materially expand net interest margin and de‑risk funding over time. Upstart to Apply for National Bank Charter
• Positive Sentiment: Analyses project large profitability upside if a bank charter is approved (estimated margin/EBITDA lift and multiple expansion akin to SoFi’s path), supporting a longer‑term bullish case for UPST. Upstart’s SoFi Moment Is Here (Seeking Alpha)
• Positive Sentiment: Needham & Company reaffirmed a Buy rating with a $40 price target, signaling broker confidence in upside from the charter and model improvements (note: this reflects analyst optimism, not a guaranteed outcome).
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary highlights the charter as transformational but also emphasizes it will take time and carry regulatory/compliance costs — investors should watch the approval timeline and execution risk. Why Upstart’s Bank Charter Bet Could Change Everything (MarketBeat)
• Neutral Sentiment: Comparative analyses and market recaps are drawing attention to valuation and volatility; these pieces help frame risk/reward but don’t by themselves move fundamentals. Head to Head Analysis: Upstart vs. Virtu (AmericanBankingNews)
• Negative Sentiment: Pomerantz LLP launched an investor investigation into Upstart, a development that can increase legal risk, distract management and pressure the stock near term. Pomerantz Investigates Upstart (PR Newswire)
• Negative Sentiment: Unusual options activity: traders bought a large volume of put options (well above normal daily levels), signaling elevated short‑term bearish bets and hedging that can amplify downside moves.

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.