Upstart Holdings
stock was diving Wednesday after its guidance came in below expectations. That sent the stock of the artificial-intelligence lending company falling after a steep rally so far this year.
Upstart
(ticker: UPST) shares were down 18% at $42.37 in premarket trading on Wednesday. The stock had almost quadrupled in 2023 as of Tuesday’s close after a positive earnings update squeezed short-sellers earlier this year.
Upstart
said Tuesday that for the third quarter it expects $140 million in revenue and $5 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, missing expectations for revenue of $155 million and $9.6 million in adjusted Ebitda.
Company executives said on an earnings call that growth in the short term was likely to be constrained by banks being cautious about lending and investors remaining wary of buying loan portfolios.
For the second quarter, Upstart booked a net loss of 34 cents a share, compared with a loss of 36 cents in the same period a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, Upstart earned 6 cents a share, whereas analysts tracked by FactSet had expected a loss of 7 cents.
Second-quarter revenue fell to $136 million from $228.2 million, broadly in line with analysts’ expectations.
“While the name will likely trade down given … lofty investor expectations, we remain more bullish than the Street. We continue to see strong adoption among bank / credit union partners, improving loan performance and expected cash flows relative to targeted levels,” BTIG analyst Lance Jessurun wrote in a research note.
Jessurun lowered his target price on the stock to $64 from $72 and kept a Buy rating on the stock.
Write to Adam Clark at [email protected]
Read the full article here
