Needham & Company LLC Lowers Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Price Target to $40.00

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) had its price target cut by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC from $56.00 to $40.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 41.64% from the company’s previous close.

UPST has been the subject of several other research reports. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Upstart from $59.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Upstart from $80.00 to $56.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Citigroup lowered shares of Upstart from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Upstart from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Upstart from $81.00 to $71.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.17.

Upstart Stock Down 0.1%

UPST opened at $28.24 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.24, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.44. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $40.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $48.28. Upstart has a twelve month low of $25.60 and a twelve month high of $87.30.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $296.09 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $288.54 million. Upstart had a net margin of 5.13% and a return on equity of 6.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 35.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.26 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Upstart will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Upstart announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, February 19th that allows the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 3.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Upstart

In related news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 7,982 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.86, for a total value of $238,342.52. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 276,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,261,903.68. The trade was a 2.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kerry Whorton Cooper sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $75,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 23,934 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,196,700. The trade was a 5.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 10,981 shares of company stock worth $357,201 in the last three months. 16.67% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Upstart

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Upstart by 1,116.8% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 89,675 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,800,000 after buying an additional 82,305 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Upstart during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $991,000. Tableaux LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Upstart during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,587,000. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of Upstart during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $4,237,000. Finally, Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Upstart by 71.5% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 550,138 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,947,000 after purchasing an additional 229,315 shares in the last quarter. 63.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Upstart Company Profile

Upstart Holdings, Inc operates a cloud-based lending marketplace that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to assess borrower creditworthiness. The company partners with banks and credit unions, providing its proprietary AI models and underwriting platform to facilitate consumer credit products. By focusing on non‐traditional data points—such as education, employment history and other real‐time indicators—Upstart seeks to improve approval rates and lower loss rates compared with conventional credit scoring methods.

Upstart’s core offering centers on unsecured personal loans, which borrowers can use for purposes such as debt consolidation, home improvements or major purchases.