Contrasting Upwork (UPWK) and Its Peers

Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) is one of 204 publicly-traded companies in the “Professional Services” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Upwork to related companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

77.7% of Upwork shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.4% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 4.9% of Upwork shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.1% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Upwork has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Upwork’s peers have a beta of 0.96, indicating that their average stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Upwork and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Upwork	0	10	3	0	2.23
Upwork Competitors	1620	6511	9186	435	2.48

Upwork currently has a consensus price target of $13.55, indicating a potential upside of 36.46%. As a group, “Professional Services” companies have a potential upside of 26.83%. Given Upwork’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Upwork is more favorable than its peers.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Upwork and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Upwork	$787.78 million	$115.43 million	12.26
Upwork Competitors	$3.29 billion	$228.40 million	32.41

Upwork’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Upwork. Upwork is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Upwork and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Upwork	13.53%	16.92%	8.79%
Upwork Competitors	0.35%	36.04%	4.43%

Summary

Upwork peers beat Upwork on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

Upwork Company Profile

Upwork operates an online marketplace that connects businesses with independent professionals and agencies for contract and project-based work. The platform supports hiring across areas such as software development, design, marketing, writing, customer service and consulting. Its services include the Talent Marketplace, where clients can find and hire professionals, and Project Catalog, which offers predefined services with set scopes. Upwork also provides solutions for larger organizations seeking to source and manage freelance talent.