Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST – Get Free Report) and Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD – Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation and risk.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent ratings for Upstart and Applied Digital, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Upstart | 3 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 2.25 |
| Applied Digital | 1 | 1 | 11 | 3 | 3.00 |
Upstart currently has a consensus price target of $45.79, indicating a potential upside of 51.16%. Applied Digital has a consensus price target of $59.11, indicating a potential upside of 32.10%. Given Upstart’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Upstart is more favorable than Applied Digital.
Profitability
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Upstart | 4.34% | 5.63% | 1.49% |
| Applied Digital | -52.84% | -15.91% | -4.62% |
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Upstart and Applied Digital”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Upstart | $1.04 billion | 2.78 | $53.60 million | $0.38 | 79.71 |
| Applied Digital | $144.19 million | 88.68 | -$231.07 million | ($0.74) | -60.47 |
Upstart has higher revenue and earnings than Applied Digital. Applied Digital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Upstart, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
63.0% of Upstart shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.7% of Applied Digital shares are held by institutional investors. 17.3% of Upstart shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.5% of Applied Digital shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Risk & Volatility
Upstart has a beta of 2.26, meaning that its share price is 126% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Digital has a beta of 5.69, meaning that its share price is 469% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Upstart beats Applied Digital on 9 of the 15 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 Applied Digital
Applied Digital Corporation designs, develops, and operates datacenters in North America. Its datacenters provide digital infrastructure solutions to the high-performance computing industry. The company also provides artificial intelligence cloud services, high performance computing datacenter hosting, and crypto datacenter hosting services. The company was formerly known as Applied Blockchain, Inc. and changed its name to Applied Digital Corporation in November 2022. Applied Digital Corporation is based in Dallas, Texas.
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