Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST)

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 120,071 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 59% compared to the average volume of 75,643 call options.

Insider Transactions at Upstart

In related news, CEO Dave Girouard sold 3,361 shares of Upstart stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.35, for a total value of $128,894.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,512 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,358,985.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Upstart news, CEO Dave Girouard sold 3,361 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.35, for a total transaction of $128,894.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,512 shares in the company, valued at $2,358,985.20. This 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, insider Natalia Mirgorodskaya sold 1,264 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.36, for a total value of $48,487.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 24,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $942,006.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 312,959 shares of company stock valued at $13,724,175. 18.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Upstart

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Upstart by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,128,975 shares of the company’s stock valued at $191,698,000 after purchasing an additional 115,057 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Upstart by 63.8% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 725,582 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,031,000 after buying an additional 282,481 shares in the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Upstart by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 396,408 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,860,000 after buying an additional 1,119 shares in the last quarter. 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 worth $6,841,000 after buying an additional 60,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Upstart by 15.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 272,430 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,427,000 after purchasing an additional 36,206 shares during the last quarter. 63.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Upstart Price Performance

Shares of UPST stock opened at $81.00 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.25 billion, a P/E ratio of -32.50 and a beta of 1.97. Upstart has a 1-year low of $19.84 and a 1-year high of $82.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $43.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.99.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.17) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.39) by $0.22. The company had revenue of $127.63 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $124.55 million. Upstart had a negative net margin of 38.05% and a negative return on equity of 32.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.34) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Upstart will post -2.39 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Upstart from $25.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Upstart from $33.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Wedbush boosted their price target on shares of Upstart from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Upstart from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $56.00 to $87.00 in a research report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.83.

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.