Head to Head Analysis: Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) and Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) and Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Upstart has a beta of 2.44, indicating that its stock price is 144% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Virtu Financial has a beta of 0.61, indicating that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Upstart and Virtu Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Upstart	5.13%	6.30%	1.74%
Virtu Financial	10.43%	32.08%	3.09%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

63.0% of Upstart shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.8% of Virtu Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.7% of Upstart shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 47.2% of Virtu Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Upstart and Virtu Financial”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Upstart	$1.04 billion	2.61	$53.60 million	$0.42	66.14
Virtu Financial	$3.63 billion	1.75	$276.42 million	$5.13	7.99

Virtu Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Upstart. Virtu Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Upstart, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Upstart and Virtu Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Upstart	4	7	4	0	2.00
Virtu Financial	1	4	2	0	2.14

Upstart presently has a consensus price target of $48.17, suggesting a potential upside of 73.39%. Virtu Financial has a consensus price target of $43.00, suggesting a potential upside of 4.88%. Given Upstart’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Upstart is more favorable than Virtu Financial.

Summary

Virtu Financial beats Upstart on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. Upstart Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.

About Virtu Financial

Virtu Financial, Inc. operates as a financial services company in the United States, Asia Pacific, Canada, EMEA, Ireland, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Market Making and Execution Services. Its product includes offerings in execution, liquidity sourcing, analytics and broker-neutral, capital markets, and multi-dealer platforms in workflow technology. The company's product allow its clients to trade on various venues across 50 countries and in various asset classes, including global equities, ETFs, options, foreign exchange, futures, fixed income, cryptocurrencies, and myriad other commodities. Its multi-asset analytics platform provides a range of pre- and post-trade services, data products, and compliance tools for clients to invest, trade, and manage risk across global markets. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in New York, New York.