Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) Price Target Lowered to $40.00 at Needham & Company LLC

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) had its target price reduced by Needham & Company LLC from $56.00 to $40.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock.

Several other analysts have also commented on UPST. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Upstart from $81.00 to $71.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market underperform” rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Upstart in a report on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley set a $45.00 price objective on Upstart in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Upstart from $80.00 to $56.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.17.

Upstart Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of UPST opened at $28.36 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $39.85 and a 200 day moving average of $48.14. The company has a market capitalization of $2.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.52, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.44. Upstart has a 12 month low of $25.60 and a 12 month high of $87.30.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $296.09 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $288.54 million. Upstart had a return on equity of 6.30% and a net margin of 5.13%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.26 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Upstart will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Upstart declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, February 19th that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 3.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Upstart

In other news, Director Kerry Whorton Cooper sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $75,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 23,934 shares in the company, valued at $1,196,700. This represents a 5.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 7,982 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.86, for a total transaction of $238,342.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 276,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,261,903.68. The trade was a 2.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 10,981 shares of company stock worth $357,201 in the last three months. 16.67% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in UPST. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Upstart by 154.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,206,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,955,000 after buying an additional 2,554,591 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Upstart in the 4th quarter worth about $49,915,000. Azora Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Upstart in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,580,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Upstart by 22.6% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. bought a new stake in shares of Upstart during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,188,000. Institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

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.