Andrea Blankmeyer Sells 7,044 Shares of Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Stock

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) CFO Andrea Blankmeyer sold 7,044 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.63, for a total transaction of $208,713.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 162,383 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,811,408.29. The trade was a 4.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Upstart Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Upstart stock opened at $28.08 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $2.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.89, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 2.26. Upstart Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $23.97 and a 1 year high of $87.30. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.76.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.39 by ($0.46). The firm had revenue of $308.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $301.30 million. Upstart had a return on equity of 5.63% and a net margin of 4.34%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 44.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.30 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Upstart Holdings, Inc. will post 0.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Upstart declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, February 19th that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Key Stories Impacting Upstart

Here are the key news stories impacting Upstart this week:

• Negative Sentiment: Pomerantz LLP announced a class action against Upstart and certain officers, adding to the legal overhang and reinforcing investor concerns about possible securities-law violations. Pomerantz Law Firm Announces the Filing of a Class Action Against Upstart Holdings, Inc.and Certain Officers – UPST
• Negative Sentiment: Berger Montague, Rosen Law Firm, the Schall Law Firm, Faruqi & Faruqi, Levi & Korsinsky, and Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman all published notices tied to the same class action, keeping litigation risk front and center for shareholders. UPSTART HOLDINGS, INC. (UPST) INVESTOR ALERT: Berger Montague Advises Investors to Inquire About a Securities Fraud Class Action
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider selling by CFO Andrea Blankmeyer and insider Sanjay Datta was disclosed, but both sales were reported as related to tax withholding on vested equity awards, making them less alarming than discretionary selling. SEC filing

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in UPST. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 154.6% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,206,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,955,000 after acquiring an additional 2,554,591 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Upstart during the fourth quarter valued at $49,915,000. Halter Ferguson Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 253.3% during the first quarter. Halter Ferguson Financial Inc. now owns 1,467,360 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,638,000 after acquiring an additional 1,052,039 shares during the period. Azora Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Upstart during the fourth quarter valued at $38,580,000. Finally, Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 22.6% during the third quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. now owns 4,480,809 shares of the company’s stock valued at $227,625,000 after acquiring an additional 826,974 shares during the period. 63.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on UPST. B. Riley Financial reduced their target price on Upstart from $66.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of Upstart in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley set a $35.00 target price on Upstart in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Mizuho set a $45.00 price target on Upstart in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $44.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Upstart presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.79.

About Upstart

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.