Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Price Target Raised to $42.00

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) had its price target lifted by Needham & Company LLC from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the stock.

UPST has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Upstart in a research note on Monday. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Upstart from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 27th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Upstart from $80.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of Upstart in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, B. Riley Financial cut their price target on shares of Upstart from $66.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.40.

Upstart Stock Up 4.6%

UPST opened at $31.09 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.03 billion, a PE ratio of 63.45, a P/E/G ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 2.29. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.32. Upstart has a fifty-two week low of $23.97 and a fifty-two week high of $76.95.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.02). Upstart had a return on equity of 7.13% and a net margin of 4.84%.The company had revenue of $364.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $354.74 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 41.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Upstart will post 0.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Upstart news, CEO Paul Gu bought 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $27.50 per share, for a total transaction of $1,375,000.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 70,000 shares in the company, valued at $1,925,000. This trade represents a 250.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Sanjay Datta sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.41, for a total value of $456,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 313,556 shares in the company, valued at $9,535,237.96. This trade represents a 4.57% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 33,346 shares of company stock worth $991,672 over the last quarter. 17.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Upstart

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Upstart by 154.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,206,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,955,000 after buying an additional 2,554,591 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Upstart during the fourth quarter valued at about $49,915,000. Halter Ferguson Financial Inc. increased its stake in 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 acquired a new position in Upstart in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,580,000. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. acquired a new position in Upstart in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,188,000. Institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

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.