Piper Sandler Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST)

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating restated by research analysts at Piper Sandler in a research report issued to clients and investors 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 would indicate a potential upside of 24.76% from the company’s current price.

UPST has been the subject of a number of other reports. B. Riley upgraded Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $49.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Upstart from $100.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Upstart from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $57.00 to $79.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $37.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $56.00 to $87.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Upstart presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.83.

Upstart Stock Performance

UPST stock opened at $84.16 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $67.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $54.82. Upstart has a fifty-two week low of $20.60 and a fifty-two week high of $96.43. The firm has a market cap of $7.68 billion, a PE ratio of -43.61 and a beta of 2.25.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, equities analysts predict that Upstart will post -2.18 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Upstart

In other news, CEO Dave Girouard sold 41,667 shares of the firm’s 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,576,838.80. This trade represents a 42.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kerry Whorton Cooper sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.59, for a total value of $37,295.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 17,961 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,339,710.99. This represents a 2.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 241,201 shares of company stock worth $17,003,724. 18.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Upstart

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in Upstart by 300.2% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,061,512 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,357,000 after purchasing an additional 796,252 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its stake in Upstart by 153.2% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 1,246,839 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,886,000 after purchasing an additional 754,416 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Upstart by 886.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 709,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,695,000 after purchasing an additional 637,706 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in Upstart by 689.5% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 589,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,566,000 after purchasing an additional 514,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Upstart in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,158,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

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.