Why Upstart Shares Are Soaring Today

Upstart Holdings Inc UPST is trading higher Wednesday morning after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results, issued guidance above estimates and announced a buyback.

Upstart reported quarterly revenue of $305 million, which beat the $262.85 million estimate. The company reported adjusted earnings of 89 cents per share, which beat the estimate of 51 cents per share.

"2021 will be remembered as the year AI lending came to the forefront, kicking off the most impactful transformation of credit in decades," said Dave Girouard co-founder and CEO of Upstart.

"I’m also happy to report that, with help from an epic push by our team in the last few weeks of the year, auto loan originations on our platform are now ramping quickly and will provide growth opportunities to Upstart for years to come."

See Also: Upstart Shares Are Soaring After Hours: What To Know About Earnings, Buyback

Upstart expects first-quarter revenue to be between $295 million and $305 million versus the $258.3 million estimate. Full-year 2022 revenue is expected to be $1.4 billion versus the $1.21 billion estimate. 

In addition, Upstart announced a share repurchase program with authorization to purchase up to $400 million of common stock.

• Piper Sandler analyst Arvind Ramnani maintained Upstart with an Overweight rating and raised the price target from $223 to $230.
• JMP Securities analyst Ronald Josey maintained Upstart with a Market Outperform rating and lowered the price target from $315 to $245.

UPST Price Action: Upstart has traded as low as $42.51 and as high as $401.48 over a 52-week period.

The stock was up 21.1% at $132.15 at time of publication.

Photo: courtesy of Upstart.