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

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 107,867 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 52% compared to the typical daily volume of 70,915 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Upstart

In other news, Chief Legal Officer Scott Darling sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total transaction of $405,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 164,870 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,419,150. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.31, for a total transaction of $26,310.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 372,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,797,791.38. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Chief Legal Officer Scott Darling sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total transaction of $405,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 164,870 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,419,150. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 198,459 shares of company stock valued at $7,789,750. 18.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Upstart

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Upstart by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,128,975 shares of the company’s stock valued at $191,698,000 after buying an additional 115,057 shares during the period. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP raised its position in shares of Upstart by 26.1% during the 2nd quarter. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP now owns 290,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,841,000 after buying an additional 60,000 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Upstart by 15.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 272,430 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,427,000 after buying an additional 36,206 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in Upstart by 1,792.9% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 262,396 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,190,000 after purchasing an additional 277,896 shares during the period. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP raised its position in Upstart by 18.1% in the second quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 223,608 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,275,000 after purchasing an additional 34,223 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Upstart Trading Up 8.9 %

UPST stock opened at $47.02 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.09 and a beta of 2.01. Upstart has a 12 month low of $19.84 and a 12 month high of $49.62. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $38.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.48.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

UPST has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Upstart from $25.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Upstart from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $10.00 price target on shares of Upstart in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Upstart in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Upstart from $33.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.61.

About Upstart

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.