UPST - Pulling Back the Curtain: Catching Up with Upstart Management | Key Takeaways From Investor Call

Research evidence excerpt

UPST - Pulling Back the Curtain: Catching Up with Upstart Management | Key Takeaways From Investor Call

Truist Securities

Equity Research Report May 11, 2026

TMT: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Upstart Holdings, Inc. (UPST)

Platforms and IT Services

UPST - Pulling Back the Curtain: Catching Up with Upstart

Arvind Ramnani Management | Key Takeaways From Investor Call

214-969-5873

Arvind.Ramnani@truist.com

We hosted Upstart's management team for an interactive investor call, including Sanjay

John Nutt Datta, President, CCO & former CFO, Andrea Blankmeyer, UPST's recently appointed CFO

713-236-4225 (March 2026), and Sonya Banerjee, VP & Head of IR. Key takeaways: 1) The lending

John.Nutt@truist.com environment is riskier today than pre-pandemic, but remains stable and geopolitical conflict

impacts have not been reflected in the UMI; 2) UPST's bank charter does not change its

Wayne Trinh, CFA primarily third party funding strategy, but rather simplifies origination channels and expands

212-590-0911 product reach; 3) UPST has multiple levers to pull to drive margin expansion of new products.

Wayne.Trinh@truist.com

Health of the American Consumer Appears Stable: According to management, UPST's

UMI shows the lending environment is much riskier today than it was pre-pandemic

Stock Rating BUY estimating that the same loan underwritten today would have the propensity to default at

Unchanged a ~40% higher rate today than it would have in 2019. Despite being a riskier environment

today, the landscape has been stable for some time and has even improved to a marginal

Price Target $40.00 degree to start 2026. Management notes that despite growing fears of oil price impacts, it

Unchanged has not seen effects of geopolitical unrest trickle into repayment patterns to date. Factors