Freelancer marketplace Upwork’s stock soars as Q4 revenue, profit top expectations, forecast higher as well
Online freelance marketplace Upwork this afternoon reported Q4 revenue that topped expectations, and a surprise profit per share where Wall Street had expected a loss, and an outlook for this quarter's, and the full year's revenue higher as well.
The report sent Upwork shares soaring by 25% in late trading.
CEO Hayden Brown called 2020 "a watershed year" for the company, noting it had produced the "highest year-over-year growth since going public" in late 2018.
Added Brown, "Nearly a year into the pandemic, organizations are embracing remote work to unleash the potential of a global workforce of independent talent that gives them the agility, skills and efficiency they need.
"Our results demonstrate that we are optimally positioned to capture the exciting opportunity ahead by serving customers as the world's work marketplace," said Brown.
Upwork's measure of the total value of labor sourced in its marketplace, called the gross services value, rose by 21% in 2020, it said, to $2.5 billion.
Revenue in the three months ended in December rose 33%, year over to $106.2 million, yielding a net profit of 6 cents a share, excluding some costs.
Analysts had been modeling $97 million and a 5-cent loss per share.
For the current quarter, the company sees revenue of $107 million to $109 million, compared to consensus for $102 million.
For the full year, the company sees revenue in a range of $460 million to $470 million, compared to consensus of $437 million.