Upwork (UPWK) Surges 8.1%: Is This an Indication of Further Gains?

Upwork UPWK shares soared 8.1% in the last trading session to close at $19.6. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 27.7% gain over the past four weeks.

Upwork is benefiting from AI-driven platform enhancements, strategic acquisitions, increased demand for AI-related work, and growth in its Business Plus offering.

This online freelance marketplace operator is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.25 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -13.8%. Revenues are expected to be $192.13 million, down 0.9% from the year-ago quarter.

Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.

For Upwork, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on UPWK going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

Upwork is part of the Zacks Internet - Services industry. Zillow Z, another stock in the same industry, closed the last trading session 0.4% lower at $89.98. Z has returned 11.4% in the past month.

Zillow's consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $0.46. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of +31.4%. Zillow currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research