Insider Selling: Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) CFO Sells $208,713.72 in Stock

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) CFO Andrea Blankmeyer sold 7,044 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.63, for a total transaction of $208,713.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 162,383 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,811,408.29. This trade represents a 4.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Upstart Stock Up 2.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:UPST opened at $28.84 on Thursday. Upstart Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.97 and a 52-week high of $87.30. The company has a 50 day moving average of $28.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.65. The company has a market capitalization of $2.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 2.26.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.39 by ($0.46). Upstart had a net margin of 4.34% and a return on equity of 5.63%. The firm had revenue of $308.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $301.30 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 44.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Upstart Holdings, Inc. will post 0.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Upstart announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, February 19th that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Upstart

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Upstart by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,011,809 shares of the company’s stock worth $219,166,000 after buying an additional 531,000 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Upstart by 154.6% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,206,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,955,000 after purchasing an additional 2,554,591 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Upstart by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,068,515 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,469,000 after purchasing an additional 26,734 shares during the last quarter. Halter Ferguson Financial Inc. lifted 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 worth $37,638,000 after purchasing an additional 1,052,039 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Upstart during the fourth quarter worth $49,915,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on UPST. Morgan Stanley set a $35.00 price objective on shares of Upstart in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Upstart from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Upstart from $56.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research raised shares of Upstart from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, B. Riley Financial decreased their price target on shares of Upstart from $66.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Seven 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.79.

Upstart News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Upstart this week:

• Positive Sentiment: One report noted a sizable stock purchase by the CEO, which may signal management confidence in Upstart’s prospects. Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) CEO Buys $1,375,000.00 in Stock
• Neutral Sentiment: Upstart’s recent conference presentation may have provided additional context on the business, but there was no major new operating update in the transcript itself. Upstart Holdings, Inc. (UPST) Presents at J.P. Morgan Conference Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent insider selling by Sanjay Datta was disclosed as being related to tax withholding on vested equity awards, which makes the transaction less significant as a standalone signal. SEC filing
• Negative Sentiment: The biggest overhang is the securities-fraud lawsuit alleging misleading AI/model-performance claims, which could mean legal expenses, management distraction, and possible settlement costs for Upstart. Pomerantz Law Firm Announces the Filing of a Class Action Against Upstart Holdings, Inc. and Certain Officers

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.