Insider Selling: Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) CEO Sells 73,241 Shares

Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) CEO Hayden Brown sold 73,241 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.43, for a total value of $617,421.63. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 771,076 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,500,170.68. The trade was a 8.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

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

• On Thursday, June 18th, Hayden Brown sold 23,468 shares of Upwork stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.15, for a total transaction of $191,264.20.

Upwork Stock Performance

UPWK stock traded down $0.03 during trading on Thursday, hitting $8.66. The stock had a trading volume of 1,798,371 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,843,327. The stock has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.25 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $8.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.59. Upwork Inc. has a 1-year low of $7.44 and a 1-year high of $22.84.

Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $191.66 million for the quarter. Upwork had a net margin of 12.94% and a return on equity of 16.70%. Upwork’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.35 earnings per share. 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

Several analysts have commented on UPWK shares. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Upwork from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Upwork from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Upwork from $17.00 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $11.50 price objective on Upwork in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Upwork from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.05.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Upwork

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 5,893,970 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Upwork by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,989,217 shares of the company’s stock worth $297,086,000 after buying an additional 322,455 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management raised its position in shares of Upwork by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 6,537,275 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,569,000 after buying an additional 23,900 shares during the period. Ancient Art L.P. boosted its holdings in Upwork by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Ancient Art L.P. now owns 4,640,814 shares of the company’s stock valued at $91,981,000 after acquiring an additional 372,147 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Upwork by 26.5% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,715,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,720,000 after acquiring an additional 779,506 shares during the last quarter. 77.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.