What Happened?

Shares of aI-powered lending platform Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) jumped 15.1% in the afternoon session after Needham analysts upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy and assigned a price target of $100. Following UPST's recent earnings, the analysts added, "Coming off the meetings, we believe that UPST has achieved a proper balance in funding, largely due to the increased appetite and partnerships with committed capital buyers.".

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What The Market Is Telling Us

Upstart’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 65 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Upstart and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business. 

The previous big move we wrote about was 10 days ago when the stock gained 9.5% on the news that Redburn Atlantic analyst Simon Clinch upgraded the stock's rating from Neutral to Buy. The analyst added, "Following 3Q24, we observe a clear positive inflection in fundamentals, driven almost entirely by the company's latest AI innovations, which still leaves upside potential from tailwinds related to falling US interest rates."

Upstart is up 122% since the beginning of the year, and at $86.28 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Upstart’s shares at the IPO in December 2020 would now be looking at an investment worth $2,928.

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