Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) CFO Erica Gessert Sells 22,844 Shares

Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) CFO Erica Gessert sold 22,844 shares of Upwork stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 364,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,075,171.27. This trade represents a 5.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 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 Performance

Shares of UPWK stock opened at $8.66 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $8.83 and its 200-day moving average is $10.51. The stock has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.25 and a beta of 0.99. Upwork Inc. has a 52-week low of $7.44 and a 52-week high of $22.84.

Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Upwork has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.380-1.430 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.310-0.330 EPS.

Institutional Trading of Upwork

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Upwork by 44.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 5,893,970 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC bought a new stake in Upwork during the second quarter worth about $23,214,000. Boston Partners grew its stake in Upwork by 785.7% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,322,575 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,962,000 after buying an additional 2,060,356 shares in the last quarter. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Upwork during the fourth quarter worth about $40,136,000. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its stake 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 buying an additional 900,318 shares in the last quarter. 77.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on UPWK. UBS Group reduced their target price on Upwork from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $11.50 price target on Upwork in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Upwork from $17.00 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen downgraded Upwork from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Upwork from $15.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.05.

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.