Upstart's President Is Selling $456K In Stock, While Wall Street Analysts Hike Price Targets: What Gives

On Tuesday, the company’s President and Chief Capital Officer, Sanjay Datta, revealed in a Form 144 filing that he intends to sell 15,000 shares of company stock worth approximately $456,000.

• The filing also shows two recent sales by Datta worth $283,400. 
• Upstart has recently undergone a major leadership transition, including the appointment of a new CEO and CFO. 
• On Tuesday, Jefferies raised the price target on Upstart to $30 from $27 and kept a ‘Hold’ rating on the shares after a meeting with its new CFO, Andrea Blankmeyer.

Shares of Upstart Holdings Inc. (UPST) fell nearly 1% in the overnight session headed into Wednesday after closing two consecutive days in the green.

On Tuesday, the company’s President and Chief Capital Officer, Sanjay Datta, who was formerly the Chief Financial Officer, disclosed in a Form 144 filing that he intends to sell 15,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $456,000.

According to the filing, the shares were acquired through the vesting of restricted stock awards granted as part of his compensation package. The filing also shows two recent sales by Datta, including 1,817 shares sold on May 15 for about $53,700 and 7,985 shares sold on May 20 for roughly $229,700.

Meanwhile, the financial company attracted a series of price target revisions from Wall Street analysts over the week.

Upstart Leadership Evolution

The AI lending platform announced a major leadership transition during its fourth-quarter results. Upstart promoted co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Paul Gu to CEO from May 1, succeeding co-founder Dave Girouard. The company said that Girouard would transition to Executive Chairman and serve as a special advisor to the company.

Additionally, long-time CFO Datta transitioned to President and Chief Capital Officer, while Andrea Blankmeyer, formerly CFO of Cityblock Health, took over as Chief Financial Officer. Upstart also brought back former machine learning leader Grant Schneider as CTO. The announcements were part of years of succession planning, the company said.

UPST: Wall Street Stance

On Tuesday, Jefferies analyst John Hecht raised the price target on Upstart to $30 from $27 and kept a ‘Hold’ rating on the shares, as per TheFly. The firm said the revision came after a meeting with Upstart's new CFO. This indicates a downside of about 3.4% from the stock’s last close.

The analyst said that during the meeting, management emphasized its focus on returning to its core segment in the non-prime space, the latest developments in new product verticals, the bank charter update, and operating expense trends, which led to an update to its model and price target.

However, BofA analyst Mihir Bhatia raised the price target on Upstart to $37 from $36 on Monday, indicating 19% upside from its last close. The analyst said that May originations were up 14% month-over-month and 52% year-over-year, serving as a positive read-through for the next quarter.

Upstart publishes monthly origination volume updates. Earlier this month, the company said that in May it had a total loan origination volume of $1.45 billion, with an average of $58.2 million per day across 25 origination days.

According to Koyfin data, the stock has an average 12-month price target of $40.13, indicating more than 29% upside from its last close.

UPST Stock: What Does Retail Think?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around UPST stock was in the ‘bearish’ territory over the past 24 hours, even as message volumes surged by 85% over the same period.

The company’s shares have declined more than 32% this year.

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