Upstart Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:UPST)

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock investors acquired 107,867 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 52% compared to the average volume of 70,915 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on UPST. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Upstart from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $10.00 price objective on shares of Upstart in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup upgraded Upstart from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $15.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Upstart from $33.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Upstart from $25.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.61.

Upstart Trading Up 8.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:UPST traded up $3.84 during trading on Friday, hitting $47.02. 8,240,904 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,603,463. Upstart has a 1-year low of $19.84 and a 1-year high of $49.62. The firm has a market cap of $4.21 billion, a P/E ratio of -19.72 and a beta of 2.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $37.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.32.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.17) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.39) by $0.22. Upstart had a negative return on equity of 32.01% and a negative net margin of 38.05%. The business had revenue of $127.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $124.55 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.34) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Upstart will post -2.39 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 1,000 shares of Upstart stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.31, for a total transaction of $26,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 372,398 shares in the company, valued at $9,797,791.38. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Upstart news, CTO Paul Gu sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.86, for a total transaction of $1,838,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 878,565 shares in the company, valued at $35,898,165.90. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.31, for a total value of $26,310.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 372,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,797,791.38. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 198,459 shares of company stock worth $7,789,750 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 18.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Upstart

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Upstart by 1,792.9% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 262,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,190,000 after acquiring an additional 277,896 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Upstart by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,013,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $286,589,000 after buying an additional 157,719 shares during the period. Seven Eight Capital LP grew its holdings in shares of Upstart by 349.1% during the first quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 189,385 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,093,000 after buying an additional 147,213 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Upstart by 442.1% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 148,214 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,496,000 after buying an additional 120,871 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC lifted its stake in Upstart by 1,106.7% in the 1st quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 97,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after acquiring an additional 89,219 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.