Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) stock surged as much as 37% in pre-market Wednesday after the cloud-based lending platform posted better-than-expected Q1 results.
Upstart reported a loss per share of $0.47, much better than the expected $0.82. Despite the fact that revenue fell 67% year-over-year to $103 million, it still came in above the $99.72M estimate.
“I’m pleased with the progress we made in Q1 against the objectives I set out last quarter,” said Dave Girouard, co-founder and CEO of Upstart. “Despite the headwinds facing our industry, we secured multiple long-term funding agreements, together expected to deliver more than $2 billion to the Upstart platform over the next 12 months.”
For this quarter, the company sees a net loss of $7M on revenue of $135M. Analysts were looking for sales of $129.2M.
Upstart also announced a new $2B+ in long-term committed capital.
Despite solid Q1 results and outlook, Morgan Stanley analysts reiterated an Underweight rating as the stock is “not out of the woods yet.”
“Committed capital agreements stabilize the origination trajectory, but uncertainty surrounding macro, credit performance, and profitability still remains, which we think will challenge shares over the medium term,” the analysts said in a note.
Both Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) analysts hiked their targets on UPST stock. Goldman is also Sell-rated.
“We’re encouraged by UPST’s ability to secure additional funding sources, but we believe that take-rates should eventually normalize lower and borrower acquisition costs should increase as competition eventually returns,” Goldman analysts said.