Earnings Results: Upstart’s red-hot rally may be cooling as stock sinks despite earnings beat

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Upstart Holdings Inc. notched better-than-expected earnings for its latest quarter, but shares of the lending company plunged in after-hours trading Tuesday.

The company, which uses artificial intelligence to inform lending decisions, generated third-quarter net income of $29.1 million, or 30 cents a share, up from $9.7 million, or 10 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, Upstart
UPST,
-6.24%

earned 60 cents a share, up from 16 cents a share a year prior and ahead of the FactSet consensus, which called for 30 cents a share.

Upstart’s revenue increased to $228.5 million, from $65.4 million a year ago, and included $210.4 million in fee revenue. Analysts were modeling $214.9 million in total revenue for the period.

For the fourth quarter, Upstart anticipates $255 million to $265 million in revenue, whereas the FactSet consensus was for $227.6 million. The company also expects $48 million to $50 million in adjusted net income, while analysts tracked by FactSet were expecting $24.5 million.

Read: FICO scores leave out ‘people on the margins,’ Upstart’s CEO says. Can AI make lending more inclusive — without creating bias of its own?

Upstart’s 24% stock plunge in late trading Tuesday comes after an impressive recent rally for the shares, which are up 129% over the past three months and 670% so far in 2021. The S&P 500
SPX,
-0.35%

is up about 6% over a three-month span and up 25% on a year-to-date basis.

The company went public in late 2020. “Since Upstart’s IPO a year ago, we’ve more than tripled our revenue, tripled our profits, tripled the number of banks and credit unions on our platform, and tripled the number of auto dealerships we serve,” Chief Executive Dave Girouard said in a release.