Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) CEO Sells $360,000.00 in Stock

Key Points

• Upwork CEO Hayden Brown sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock for $360,000 on September 17th, reducing his shareholding by 1.79% to 1,098,291 shares.
• The company recently reported a beat in quarterly earnings with $0.35 EPS, surpassing analyst expectations of $0.26, and declared a $100 million share repurchase plan.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on Upwork, with an average target price of $18.67 and recent changes including a downgrade from "strong-buy" to "buy" by Wall Street Zen.

Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK - Get Free Report) CEO Hayden Brown sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.00, for a total transaction of $360,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,098,291 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,769,238. The trade was a 1.79% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Hayden Brown also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, September 19th, Hayden Brown sold 20,000 shares of Upwork stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.00, for a total transaction of $400,000.00.
• On Thursday, September 18th, Hayden Brown sold 42,344 shares of Upwork stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.09, for a total transaction of $808,346.96.
• On Monday, August 18th, Hayden Brown sold 25,577 shares of Upwork stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.84, for a total transaction of $353,985.68.
• On Friday, August 15th, Hayden Brown sold 60,000 shares of Upwork stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.76, for a total transaction of $825,600.00.

Upwork Price Performance

UPWK stock traded down $0.74 during trading on Monday, hitting $19.33. The stock had a trading volume of 4,707,781 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,354,424. The company's 50 day moving average price is $14.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.25. Upwork Inc. has a 1-year low of $9.93 and a 1-year high of $20.41. The stock has a market cap of $2.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.11 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 3.36 and a current ratio of 3.36.

Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Upwork had a net margin of 31.75% and a return on equity of 44.83%. The firm had revenue of $194.94 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $187.56 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Upwork Inc. will post 0.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Upwork announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, September 3rd that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 4.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Upwork

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of UPWK. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of Upwork by 364.5% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 5,351,406 shares of the company's stock worth $69,836,000 after purchasing an additional 4,199,244 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Upwork during the 1st quarter worth about $22,079,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in shares of Upwork by 200.0% during the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 2,237,616 shares of the company's stock worth $29,201,000 after purchasing an additional 1,491,701 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Upwork by 41.1% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,660,511 shares of the company's stock worth $60,820,000 after purchasing an additional 1,357,476 shares during the period. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Upwork during the 1st quarter worth about $13,713,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on UPWK. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $18.00 price target on shares of Upwork in a report on Monday, June 2nd. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Upwork in a report on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Upwork from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $18.67.

About Upwork

Upwork Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates a work marketplace that connects businesses with various independent professionals and agencies in the United States, India, the Philippines, and internationally. The company's work marketplace provides access to talent with various skills across a range of categories, including administrative support, sales and marketing, design and creative, and customer service, as well as web, mobile, and software development.