What Happened?
Shares of online work marketplace Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK) jumped 8.4% in the morning session after it continued to climb as the company posted strong third-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations and raised its full-year profit guidance. The online work marketplace reported revenue of $201.7 million and adjusted earnings of $0.36 per share, surpassing analyst estimates on both fronts. The company's profitability was a key highlight, with its adjusted EBITDA margin expanding by 7.3 percentage points year over year. The strong performance came despite a 7.1% decrease in Gross Services Volume, suggesting Upwork successfully increased its monetization from existing customers. Looking ahead, management raised its full-year guidance for adjusted earnings per share by 17.2% at the midpoint. Overall, the significant beats on key metrics and the optimistic outlook for future profitability fueled investor confidence.
Is now the time to buy Upwork? Access our full analysis report here.
What Is The Market Telling Us
Upwork’s shares are quite volatile and have had 19 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 7 days ago when the stock gained 9.3% on the news that investment bank UBS upgraded the stock to "Buy" from "Neutral," citing signs of a potential rebound in growth. The firm kept its price target at $21 but highlighted positive trends. The upgrade stemmed from improving web traffic and higher client spending on the freelancing platform. UBS noted these factors suggested Upwork could return to growth in its gross services volume—the total value of work done on its platform. This potential turnaround followed five consecutive quarters of declines in the key metric and was seen as a significant catalyst for the stock.
Upwork is up 3.6% since the beginning of the year, but at $17 per share, it is still trading 15.3% below its 52-week high of $20.07 from September 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Upwork’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $840.75.
Do you want to know what moves the business you care about? Add them to your StockStory watchlist and every time a stock significantly moves, we provide you with a timely explanation straight to your inbox. It’s free for active Edge members and will only take you a second.
