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

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the fifteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $47.7692.

A number of research firms have commented on UPST. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Upstart from $59.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Citigroup cut shares of Upstart from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. BTIG Research upgraded Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $43.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market underperform” rating and issued a $20.00 target price on shares of Upstart in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Upstart in a research note on Monday, December 29th.

Insider Activity

In other Upstart news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 7,982 shares of the business’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 owned 276,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,261,903.68. The trade was a 2.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,481 shares of company stock valued at $282,201. 16.67% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Upstart

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in UPST. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Upstart by 1,116.8% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 89,675 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,800,000 after buying an additional 82,305 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of Upstart in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,237,000. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Upstart by 71.5% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 550,138 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,947,000 after acquiring an additional 229,315 shares in the last quarter. Sepio Capital LP increased its position in shares of Upstart by 42.0% during the second quarter. Sepio Capital LP now owns 256,102 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,565,000 after acquiring an additional 75,802 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Upstart by 31.5% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Upstart Price Performance

Shares of Upstart stock opened at $26.09 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $33.77 and its 200 day moving average is $43.87. Upstart has a one year low of $24.93 and a one year high of $87.30. The firm has a market cap of $2.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.12, a PEG ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 2.44.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last issued its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $288.54 million. Upstart had a return on equity of 6.30% and a net margin of 5.13%.The company’s revenue was up 35.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.26 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Upstart will post -0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Upstart declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, February 19th that permits the company to buyback $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.