JPMorgan Chase & Co. Upgrades Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) to “Neutral”

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) from an underweight rating to a neutral rating in a research note published on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has $79.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of $57.00.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on UPST. Needham & Company LLC raised shares of Upstart from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. BTIG Research raised Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler upgraded Upstart from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $31.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Wedbush increased their price objective on Upstart from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $37.00 to $95.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.08.

Upstart Stock Performance

Shares of UPST opened at $88.77 on Wednesday. Upstart has a 1 year low of $20.60 and a 1 year high of $90.44. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $67.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.62.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.02. Upstart had a negative return on equity of 32.57% and a negative net margin of 30.15%. As a group, analysts forecast that Upstart will post -2.18 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Upstart

In other news, CTO Paul Gu sold 65,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.58, for a total transaction of $4,327,700.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 878,565 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,494,857.70. This trade represents a 6.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Dave Girouard sold 41,667 shares of Upstart stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.41, for a total transaction of $2,725,438.47. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,512 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,023,499.92. This represents a 40.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 347,868 shares of company stock valued at $24,056,862. 18.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Upstart

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Upstart by 153.2% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 1,246,839 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,886,000 after purchasing an additional 754,416 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its position in Upstart by 689.5% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 589,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,566,000 after buying an additional 514,400 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Upstart in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,158,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Upstart by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,793,452 shares of the company’s stock valued at $479,843,000 after acquiring an additional 369,640 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Upstart by 1,413.7% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 333,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,342,000 after acquiring an additional 311,434 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Upstart Company Profile

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.