Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) CFO Sells $192,574.92 in Stock

Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) CFO Erica Gessert sold 22,844 shares of Upwork stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.43, for a total transaction of $192,574.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 364,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,075,171.27. This trade represents a 5.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Erica Gessert also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, June 18th, Erica Gessert sold 9,169 shares of Upwork stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.15, for a total transaction of $74,727.35.

Upwork Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of UPWK opened at $8.61 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $8.83 and its 200-day moving average is $10.50. Upwork Inc. has a 12 month low of $7.44 and a 12 month high of $22.84. The firm has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.18 and a beta of 0.99.

Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.07. Upwork had a net margin of 12.94% and a return on equity of 16.70%. The business had revenue of $191.66 million for the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Upwork has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.380-1.430 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.310-0.330 EPS.

Analyst Ratings Changes

UPWK has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup cut their price objective on Upwork from $17.00 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Upwork from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Upwork from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $11.50 target price on shares of Upwork in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Upwork from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Upwork has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.05.

Institutional Trading of Upwork

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in UPWK. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Upwork by 44.2% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 19,231,377 shares of the company’s stock worth $381,166,000 after buying an additional 5,893,970 shares during the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Upwork in the second quarter worth $23,214,000. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of Upwork by 785.7% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,322,575 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,962,000 after acquiring an additional 2,060,356 shares during the last quarter. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Upwork during the fourth quarter worth $40,136,000. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its position in Upwork by 37.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 3,288,860 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,185,000 after acquiring an additional 900,318 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.71% of the company’s stock.

Upwork Company Profile

Upwork Inc operates a leading online talent marketplace that connects businesses with independent professionals worldwide. Through its digital platform, the company enables clients across industries—including technology, marketing, creative services and customer support—to source, hire and manage freelance talent on demand. Key features of the Upwork platform include streamlined job posting, proposal evaluation, time-tracking tools, invoicing and secure payment processing, all designed to simplify collaboration between clients and remote workers.

The company traces its roots to the merger of two pioneering freelance marketplaces, Elance (founded in 1998) and oDesk (founded in 2003), which combined in 2015 to form a unified entity.