Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) COO Anthony Ray Kappus Sells 1,964 Shares

Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) COO Anthony Ray Kappus sold 1,964 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.43, for a total transaction of $16,556.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,214 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,814.02. The trade was a 21.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Anthony Ray Kappus also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Saturday, July 18th, Anthony Ray Kappus sold 558 shares of Upwork stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.06, for a total transaction of $5,055.48.

Upwork Stock Performance

NASDAQ:UPWK opened at $8.66 on Friday. Upwork Inc. has a 52-week low of $7.44 and a 52-week high of $22.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $8.83 and a 200 day moving average of $10.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.25 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 the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.07. Upwork had a return on equity of 16.70% and a net margin of 12.94%.The firm had revenue of $191.66 million for the quarter. The business’s revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.35 EPS. 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 Investors Weigh In On Upwork

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Straightline Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Upwork by 96.2% in the second quarter. Straightline Group LLC now owns 83,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $697,000 after acquiring an additional 40,885 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Upwork by 16.6% during the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 298,817 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,498,000 after acquiring an additional 42,432 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Upwork in the 2nd quarter worth $2,051,000. Corient Private Wealth LP bought a new stake in Upwork during the second quarter valued at about $170,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Upwork during the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,886,000. Institutional investors own 77.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $11.50 price objective on Upwork in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Citizens Jmp cut Upwork from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Upwork from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Roth Capital lowered Upwork from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $10.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Upwork from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently 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.