Duality Advisers LP Makes New Investment in Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK)

Duality Advisers LP purchased a new position in Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 37,859 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $563,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Upwork in the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp acquired a new position in shares of Upwork during the 4th quarter valued at $269,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Upwork during the 4th quarter valued at $330,000. Shaker Investments LLC OH lifted its position in shares of Upwork by 78.9% during the 4th quarter. Shaker Investments LLC OH now owns 117,718 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,750,000 after acquiring an additional 51,931 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Upwork during the 4th quarter valued at $19,082,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Upwork from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Upwork from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Upwork from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. JMP Securities boosted their price target on shares of Upwork from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Upwork from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $13.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.55.

Insider Buying and Selling at Upwork

In other Upwork news, CEO Hayden Brown sold 43,714 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.86, for a total transaction of $562,162.04. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,165,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,994,502.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 67,531 shares of company stock valued at $851,894 over the last three months. 9.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Upwork Price Performance

UPWK opened at $11.18 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 159.74 and a beta of 1.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $12.37 and a 200 day moving average of $13.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 3.01 and a current ratio of 3.01. Upwork Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $6.56 and a fifty-two week high of $16.36.

Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $183.93 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.43 million. Upwork had a net margin of 6.80% and a return on equity of 14.21%. On average, research analysts expect that Upwork Inc. will post 0.42 EPS for the current year.

Upwork Company Profile

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.