Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) CEO Acquires $1,375,000.00 in Stock

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) CEO Paul Gu bought 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $27.50 per share, for a total transaction of $1,375,000.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 70,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,925,000. The trade was a 250.00% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Upstart Stock Performance

NASDAQ UPST opened at $26.99 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $28.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.39. The stock has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a PE ratio of 71.03, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.26. Upstart Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $23.97 and a fifty-two week high of $87.30.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.46). The business had revenue of $308.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $301.30 million. Upstart had a return on equity of 5.63% and a net margin of 4.34%.Upstart’s revenue for the quarter was up 44.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.30 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Upstart Holdings, Inc. will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Upstart declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, February 19th that allows the company to buyback $100.00 million in outstanding 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 an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Upstart

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State of Wyoming raised its holdings in shares of Upstart by 10.8% during the first quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 6,901 shares of the company’s stock valued at $177,000 after purchasing an additional 674 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Upstart by 4.9% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 26,062 shares of the company’s stock valued at $668,000 after purchasing an additional 1,208 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Upstart by 17.2% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 373,455 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,579,000 after purchasing an additional 54,908 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Upstart by 43.9% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,885 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,000 after purchasing an additional 1,186 shares during the period. Finally, Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Upstart during the first quarter valued at about $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Upstart from $56.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. B. Riley Financial dropped their target price 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. Citizens Jmp restated a “market underperform” rating and issued a $20.00 target price on shares of Upstart in a report on Friday, February 13th. Compass Point upgraded shares of Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $20.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Upstart from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.79.

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.