Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) CFO Sells $167,266.80 in Stock

Key Points

• Upwork's CFO Erica Gessert sold 8,730 shares at an average price of $19.16, reducing her stake by 3.84% to 218,605 shares valued at approximately $4.19 million.
• The company's stock recently fell 3.7%, trading at $19.33, with a market cap of $2.56 billion and a P/E ratio of 11.11, indicating significant market fluctuations.
• Upwork announced a $100 million share repurchase plan, reflecting management's belief that the stock may be undervalued, particularly following a strong quarter where they reported earnings surpassing analysts' estimates.

Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK - Get Free Report) CFO Erica Gessert sold 8,730 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.16, for a total value of $167,266.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 218,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,188,471.80. The trade was a 3.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

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

• On Monday, August 18th, Erica Gessert sold 19,036 shares of Upwork stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.84, for a total value of $263,458.24.

Upwork Price Performance

Upwork stock traded up $0.30 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $19.63. 1,892,076 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,608,983. Upwork Inc. has a 52-week low of $9.93 and a 52-week high of $20.41. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $14.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $14.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 3.36 and a current ratio of 3.36. The company has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.29 and a beta of 1.43.

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

Upwork declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, September 3rd that allows the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 4.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Upwork

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in shares of Upwork by 22.1% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 6,534,575 shares of the company's stock valued at $87,825,000 after acquiring an additional 1,183,169 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Upwork by 41.1% in the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,660,511 shares of the company's stock valued at $60,820,000 after acquiring an additional 1,357,476 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Upwork by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,861,482 shares of the company's stock valued at $38,458,000 after acquiring an additional 231,103 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its stake in shares of Upwork by 200.0% in the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 2,237,616 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,201,000 after acquiring an additional 1,491,701 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Upwork in the 1st quarter valued at about $22,079,000. Institutional investors own 77.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

UPWK has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of Upwork in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Wall Street Zen cut Upwork from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday. UBS Group upped their price objective on Upwork from $16.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $18.00 price objective on shares of Upwork in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $18.83.

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.