Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) and PROG (NYSE:PRG) Financial Analysis

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) and PROG (NYSE:PRG) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Upstart	4.84%	7.13%	1.82%
PROG	5.57%	21.88%	9.15%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Upstart and PROG, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Upstart	2	6	8	0	2.38
PROG	0	3	6	1	2.80

Upstart currently has a consensus price target of $44.40, suggesting a potential upside of 49.77%. PROG has a consensus price target of $49.44, suggesting a potential upside of 16.35%. Given Upstart’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Upstart is more favorable than PROG.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

63.0% of Upstart shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.9% of PROG shares are held by institutional investors. 17.3% of Upstart shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of PROG shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Upstart and PROG”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Upstart	$1.04 billion	2.76	$53.60 million	$0.49	60.50
PROG	$2.41 billion	0.70	$146.79 million	$3.62	11.74

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

Risk and Volatility

Upstart has a beta of 2.29, meaning that its share price is 129% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PROG has a beta of 1.79, meaning that its share price is 79% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

PROG beats Upstart on 9 of the 15 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 PROG

PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) is a financial technology holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah with three business segments: Progressive Leasing, which offers lease-to-own transactions primarily to credit-challenged consumers through e-commerce and point-of-sale retail partners, via online, mobile, and in-store solutions; Vive Financial, which provides consumers who may not qualify for traditional prime lending with a variety of second-look, revolving credit products through private label and branded credit cards; and Four Technologies, which provides consumers of all credit backgrounds Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options through four interest-free installments via its platform, Four.