Royal Bank Of Canada Cuts Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) Price Target to $8.00

Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) had its price target trimmed by Royal Bank Of Canada from $9.00 to $8.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the stock.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Upwork from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut Upwork from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Upwork from $17.00 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Citizens Jmp downgraded Upwork from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Upwork from $15.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.15.

Upwork Stock Performance

Shares of UPWK opened at $8.66 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $8.85 and a 200-day moving average of $10.95. The company has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.25 and a beta of 0.99. Upwork has a 1 year low of $7.44 and a 1 year high of $22.84.

Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The company reported $0.41 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 16.71%. The firm had revenue of $191.66 million for the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue 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.

Insider Transactions at Upwork

In other Upwork news, CEO Hayden Brown sold 23,468 shares of Upwork stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.15, for a total transaction of $191,264.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 797,495 shares in the company, valued at $6,499,584.25. The trade was a 2.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing 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. Also, CFO Erica Gessert sold 9,169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.15, for a total value of $74,727.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 341,609 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,784,113.35. This represents a 2.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 34,471 shares of company stock worth $281,446. 4.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Upwork

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Algert Global LLC raised its position in shares of Upwork by 31.4% during the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 361,080 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,019,000 after purchasing an additional 86,190 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Upwork in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $92,000. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in Upwork during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $316,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in Upwork during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,158,000. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Upwork during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $511,000. Institutional investors own 77.71% of the company’s stock.

About Upwork

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.