Upstart’s (UPST) Overweight Rating Reaffirmed at Piper Sandler

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Piper Sandler in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $105.00 price objective on the stock, up from their previous price objective of $85.00. Piper Sandler’s target price suggests a potential upside of 55.93% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Upstart from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $57.00 to $79.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Redburn Atlantic raised Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Citigroup raised Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $56.00 to $87.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. B. Riley raised Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $49.00 to $105.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on Upstart from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Upstart presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.27.

Upstart Stock Performance

Shares of Upstart stock opened at $67.34 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $6.14 billion, a P/E ratio of -34.89 and a beta of 2.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $67.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.38. Upstart has a one year low of $20.60 and a one year high of $88.95.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.02. Upstart had a negative return on equity of 32.57% and a negative net margin of 30.15%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Upstart will post -2.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Upstart

In other Upstart news, CEO Dave Girouard sold 41,667 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.60, for a total transaction of $2,608,354.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 57,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,576,838.80. This represents a 42.17 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Paul Gu sold 87,600 shares of Upstart stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.39, for a total value of $6,078,564.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 863,065 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,888,080.35. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 347,868 shares of company stock valued at $24,056,862 over the last quarter. Insiders own 18.06% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Upstart

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in UPST. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its holdings in Upstart by 153.2% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 1,246,839 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,886,000 after buying an additional 754,416 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its position in shares of Upstart by 689.5% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 589,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,566,000 after acquiring an additional 514,400 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Upstart by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,793,452 shares of the company’s stock valued at $479,843,000 after purchasing an additional 369,640 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in Upstart by 1,413.7% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 333,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,342,000 after purchasing an additional 311,434 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in Upstart by 63.8% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 725,582 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,031,000 after purchasing an additional 282,481 shares during the period. 63.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Upstart Company Profile

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.