Merit Financial Group LLC Buys Shares of 4,396 Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST)

Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,396 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $271,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in Upstart by 9.6% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 27,049 shares of the company’s stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 2,370 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its position in shares of Upstart by 96.2% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 3,420 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Upstart by 49.1% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 19,894 shares of the company’s stock valued at $469,000 after purchasing an additional 6,552 shares during the last quarter. 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, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in Upstart by 7.2% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 44,301 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,045,000 after purchasing an additional 2,976 shares in the last quarter. 63.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on UPST. Citigroup upgraded Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $87.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Upstart from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Piper Sandler raised shares of Upstart from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Needham & Company LLC raised shares of Upstart from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Upstart from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $37.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Upstart currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $61.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Upstart news, CEO Dave Girouard sold 41,667 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.60, for a total value of $2,608,354.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 57,138 shares in the company, valued at $3,576,838.80. This represents a 42.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Sanjay Datta sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.54, for a total value of $119,310.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 331,093 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,335,137.22. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 392,535 shares of company stock worth $26,968,327 over the last 90 days. 18.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Upstart Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of UPST opened at $67.44 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.94 and a beta of 2.26. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $69.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.97. Upstart Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $20.60 and a twelve month high of $88.95.

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by ($0.31). The business had revenue of $162.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $149.94 million. Upstart had a negative net margin of 30.15% and a negative return on equity of 32.57%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.48) earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Upstart Holdings, Inc. will post -2.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Upstart 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.