Head-To-Head Comparison: Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) vs. RCM Technologies (NASDAQ:RCMT)

Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) and RCM Technologies (NASDAQ:RCMT) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

77.7% of Upwork shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.2% of RCM Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.9% of Upwork shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 28.0% of RCM Technologies shares are owned 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Upwork and RCM Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Upwork	1	9	3	0	2.15
RCM Technologies	0	1	3	0	2.75

Upwork presently has a consensus target price of $13.55, indicating a potential upside of 31.40%. RCM Technologies has a consensus target price of $45.00, indicating a potential upside of 27.50%. Given Upwork’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Upwork is more favorable than RCM Technologies.

Profitability

This table compares Upwork and RCM Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Upwork	13.53%	17.28%	8.20%
RCM Technologies	5.13%	37.92%	12.83%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Upwork and RCM Technologies”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Upwork	$787.78 million	1.63	$115.43 million	$0.77	13.39
RCM Technologies	$319.40 million	0.79	$16.33 million	$2.30	15.34

Upwork has higher revenue and earnings than RCM Technologies. Upwork is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than RCM Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Upwork has a beta of 1.03, suggesting that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, RCM Technologies has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Upwork beats RCM Technologies on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Upwork

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. Its work marketplace also enables clients to streamline workflows, such as talent sourcing, outreach, and contracting. The company’s work marketplace offers access to various functionalities for remote engagements with talent, including communication and collaboration, ability to receive talent invoices through their work marketplace, and payment protection. Its marketplace offerings include Upwork Payroll and Upwork Enterprise, as well as managed and escrow services. The company was formerly known as Elance-oDesk, Inc. and changed its name to Upwork Inc. in May 2015. Upwork Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About RCM Technologies

RCM Technologies, Inc. provides business and technology solutions in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Europe. It operates through three segments: Engineering, Specialty Health Care, and Life Sciences and Information Technology. The Engineering segment offers a range of engineering services, including project management engineering and design, engineering analysis, engineer-procure-construct, configuration management, hardware/software validation and verification, quality assurance, technical writing and publications, manufacturing process planning and improvement, and 3D/BIM integrated design. The Specialty Health Care segment provides long-term and short-term staffing, executive search, international recruitment, and placement services in the fields of allied and therapy staffing, correctional healthcare staffing, health information management, nursing services, physician and advanced practice, school staffing and recruitment, and telepractice. The Life Sciences and Information Technology segment offers enterprise business solutions, application services, IT infrastructure solutions, life sciences solutions, and other vertical market specific solutions; and data solutions, digitization, recruiting process outsourcing, human capital management solutions, workforce management, and consulting services. The company serves aerospace and defense, energy, financial services, health care, life sciences, manufacturing and distribution, and technology industries, as well as educational institutions and the public sector. RCM Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1971 and is based in Pennsauken, New Jersey.