Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Shares Down 9.4% – Should You Sell?

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST)’s stock price traded down 9.4% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $71.30 and last traded at $71.77. 4,549,777 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 27% from the average session volume of 6,229,057 shares. The stock had previously closed at $79.21.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America increased their target price on Upstart from $33.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. BTIG Research raised Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Barclays increased their target price on Upstart from $80.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Redburn Atlantic raised 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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, February 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven 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 a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.38.

Upstart Trading Down 9.4 %

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $68.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.37. The company has a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, a P/E ratio of -49.16 and a beta of 2.25.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.02. Upstart had a negative return on equity of 25.87% and a negative net margin of 20.20%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Upstart Holdings, Inc. will post -0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Upstart

In other Upstart news, CEO Dave Girouard sold 41,667 shares of Upstart stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.60, for a total value of $2,608,354.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 57,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,576,838.80. The trade was a 42.17 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Paul Gu sold 58,786 shares of Upstart stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.93, for a total value of $4,463,620.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 863,065 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,532,525.45. This represents a 6.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 193,983 shares of company stock valued at $13,598,414 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 18.06% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Upstart

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of UPST. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Upstart by 125.3% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 989 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 550 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Upstart during the 3rd quarter worth $235,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Upstart by 4,087.8% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 233,258 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,333,000 after buying an additional 227,688 shares in the last quarter. Bristlecone Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Upstart during the 3rd quarter worth $258,000. Finally, TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Upstart by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 44,756 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,791,000 after buying an additional 2,732 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

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.