What Happened?
Shares of online work marketplace Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK) jumped 19% in the afternoon session after the company reported strong first quarter 2025 results which significantly beat analysts' revenue and EBITDA expectations, with full-year EBITDA and EPS guidance also coming in ahead of Wall Street's estimates. Despite only a 1% lift in sales and a 2% dip in total services volume, the business managed to protect its bottom line through more efficient cost management. On the other hand, its number of customers declined. Still, with AI-related spending climbing and new premium services gaining traction, Upwork has shown it can offset customer churn with better monetization and cost control. Overall, this print was mixed but still had some key positives.
The shares closed the day at $15.71, up 18% from previous close.
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What The Market Is Telling Us
Upwork’s shares are very volatile and have had 21 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Upwork and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 7 months ago when the stock gained 26% on the news that the company announced strong preliminary guidance for Q3 2024, with revenue and EPS expected to exceed the top end of the previous forecast range. Separately, the company announced a restructuring plan that would result in a 21% reduction in its workforce and help generate approximately $60 million in annualized cost savings.
Upwork is down 4.2% since the beginning of the year, and at $15.72 per share, it is trading 10.1% below its 52-week high of $17.49 from December 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Upwork’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,729.
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