Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Earns “Overweight” Rating from Piper Sandler

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Piper Sandler in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $105.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of $85.00. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 55.93% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on UPST. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Upstart from $100.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. BTIG Research raised Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Wedbush lifted their price target on Upstart from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Upstart from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $57.00 to $79.00 in a research report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.27.

Upstart Trading Down 5.1 %

Shares of UPST stock opened at $67.34 on Wednesday. Upstart has a 12-month low of $20.60 and a 12-month high of $88.95. The business’s 50 day moving average is $67.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.38. The company has a market capitalization of $6.14 billion, a P/E ratio of -34.89 and a beta of 2.25.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CTO Paul Gu sold 87,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.39, for a total value of $6,078,564.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 863,065 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,888,080.35. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dave Girouard sold 41,667 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.41, for a total transaction of $2,725,438.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,512 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,023,499.92. This trade represents a 40.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 347,868 shares of company stock worth $24,056,862. Insiders own 18.06% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Upstart

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Upstart in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in Upstart in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its stake in Upstart by 24.2% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas acquired a new stake in Upstart during the 3rd quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Upstart by 125.3% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 989 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 550 shares in the last quarter. 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.