Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Sets New 52-Week Low Following Analyst Downgrade

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) shares hit a new 52-week low on Friday after Mizuho lowered their price target on the stock from $66.00 to $51.00. Mizuho currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Upstart traded as low as $24.60 and last traded at $24.67, with a volume of 236340 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $25.33.

UPST has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Compass Point raised Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Upstart in a report on Monday, December 29th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Upstart in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $44.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, BTIG Research upgraded shares of Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $43.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Upstart currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Upstart news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 7,982 shares of Upstart stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.86, for a total value of $238,342.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 276,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,261,903.68. The trade was a 2.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 9,481 shares of company stock worth $282,201 in the last quarter. 16.67% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in UPST. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Upstart by 11.9% in the fourth 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 during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 2,554,591 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Upstart by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,068,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,469,000 after acquiring an additional 26,734 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Upstart in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,915,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Upstart by 31.5% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 971,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,370,000 after acquiring an additional 232,595 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Upstart Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 2.44. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $32.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.44.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.02. The business 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.26 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Upstart Holdings, Inc. will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

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

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.