Piper Sandler Upgrades Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) to Overweight

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) was upgraded by stock analysts at Piper Sandler to an “overweight” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $75.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 20.12% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on UPST. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Upstart from $70.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Upstart in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Stephens started coverage on shares of Upstart in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Upstart from $42.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Upstart from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $53.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.42.

Upstart Stock Down 3.7%

Shares of UPST opened at $62.44 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $5.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -83.25 and a beta of 2.29. Upstart has a twelve month low of $20.60 and a twelve month high of $96.43. The company has a 50 day moving average of $50.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.27.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $213.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $201.08 million. Upstart had a negative net margin of 9.20% and a negative return on equity of 15.27%. Upstart’s revenue was up 67.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.31) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Upstart will post -0.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Upstart

In other news, CEO Dave Girouard sold 41,667 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.11, for a total value of $2,504,603.37. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,614 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,162,627.54. This represents a 44.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 13,512 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.97, for a total transaction of $634,658.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 311,356 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,624,391.32. This represents a 4.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 99,450 shares of company stock worth $5,759,917 in the last ninety days. 16.67% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Upstart

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in Upstart by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 5,511 shares of the company’s stock worth $339,000 after buying an additional 167 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its stake in Upstart by 24.2% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 882 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 172 shares during the period. Bailard Inc. increased its stake in Upstart by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 38,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,386,000 after buying an additional 212 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Upstart by 23.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,662 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,000 after buying an additional 314 shares during the period. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Upstart by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 24,352 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,121,000 after buying an additional 322 shares during the period. 63.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.