Alger, an investment management firm, published its “Alger Spectra Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. During the fourth quarter of 2021, the largest portfolio sector weightings were Information Technology and Consumer Discretionary. The Health Care sector was the largest sector overweight and Consumer Staples was the largest sector underweight. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
Alger Spectra Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: UPST) and discussed its stance on the firm. Upstart Holdings, Inc. is a San Mateo, California-based consumer lending company with a $7.7 billion market capitalization. UPST delivered a -37.74% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 46.16%. The stock closed at $94.20 per share on January 25, 2022.
Here is what Alger Spectra Fund has to say about Upstart Holdings, Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“Upstart operates a cloud-based artificial intelligence (Al) lending platform. The platform aggregates consumer demand for loans and connects it to the company’s network of Al-enabled bank partners. The technology connects consumers, banks and institutional investors through a shared Al lending platform. The company continues to improve its various Al-driven models, which has significantly widened the top of the application funnel, or the overall universe of loan applicants. Additionally, more accurate predictions on risk can lead to higher approval rates, which tap into larger lead pools and may ultimately translate into higher loan volume and revenue. While Upstart’s share price has given back a significant component of its meteoric rise since the company’s December 2020 IPO, the price remains up approximately 150% for the year. We maintain that Upstart is an innovative and disruptive Al company. In our view, fundamentals remain strong, with revenues growing 250% year over year, driven by 244% year-over-year growth of loan volume, which exceeded consensus estimates. Contribution margin, which is a measure of how products contribute to the overall profits of a company, was 46%. We believe Upstart is appropriately balanced between maintaining profitability while driving growth.”
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Our calculations show that Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: UPST) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. UPST was in 23 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 21 funds in the previous quarter. Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: UPST) delivered a -71.20% return in the past 3 months.
In December 2021, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on UPST in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
