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UPWORK INC.

UPWK · Technology · $1.2B mkt cap · FY2025 filings · · not refreshed in 35 days · Shallow moat ·

Doesn't clear the bar

Shallow moat
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The five investor questions

75

2021–2025 (latest 5 aligned FYs; v3 window cap 5): revenue $503M to $788M, increasing; diluted EPS -0.44 to 0.84, increasing.

96

Median gross margin 72.6% over 10y, very stable.

4

Median ROIC -6.6%, above the 12% hurdle in 13% of years.

94

Net debt/EBITDA 0.4x, no material interest expense disclosed.

24

Owner earnings changed trend unclear over up to the ten most recent annual observations.

Price vs. value if growth stopped today

A cautious baseline, not a price target: what the shares may support if normalized owner earnings simply hold steady.

Above value if growth stopped todayBelow value if growth stopped today
86% above value if growth stopped today
$55.6M
$4.74
$4.74
$8.83
86% above value if growth stopped today

What today’s price assumes: owner earnings growing ~13%/yr over 5 years. The zero-growth estimate assumes owner earnings stay flat (0% growth).

How to read this

We solve for the constant annual change in owner earnings that would make the five-year zero-growth estimate equal today’s price. This keeps the existing model inputs and calculation unchanged; it is an expectations lens, not a forecast.

This zero-growth estimate assumes trailing owner earnings persist — unreliable for declining businesses. The recent FY revenue series does not trigger the three-consecutive-declines flag.

Among the current top-score group, the median current price is 239% above the zero-growth estimate across 48 of the current top 50 companies by Moat Score with both values.

Score records captured Jul 26, 2026.

Exactly which 50 companies?

FTNT, META, MEDP, IBEX, MSFT, GOOGL, LULU, ANF, IDXX, TXRH, FHI, QLYS, FFIV, ADBE, LLY, MANH, VEEV, GRMN, SSD, MNST, DOCS, MCO, CPRT, NTAP, LRCX, NVDA, CORT, SFM, MPTI, ULTA, SN, RMD, ROL, PAYC, IRMD, INTU, DECK, MORN, LGCY, DAL, GWW, ISRG, MPWR, CTAS, LOPE, MRK, CMG, FAST, BKNG, ORLY

Missing a usable price or zero-growth estimate: ANF, BKNG.

Model details under moat-index@3.0.0: zero-growth multiple 11.1×, capped-growth comparison at no more than 18×; 9% discount rate; high-end growth 0% (capped at 4%) using min(5y revenue CAGR, 5y diluted-EPS CAGR), clamped to 0%–4%; maintenance capex uses min(capex, D&A); abstain when D&A is unavailable. This is a disclosed model range, not intrinsic value as fact.

11 years of fundamentals

The business, in plain English

UPWORK INC. booked $788M of revenue in FY2025 in the Technology sector and kept 77.8% of it as gross profit — a high-margin business by that measure. After every other cost, 14.7% of each revenue dollar reached the bottom line.

Across the filed record, revenue grew from $164M (FY2016) to $788M (FY2025) — about 19.0% a year compounded over 9 years.

It earned 14.0% on invested capital in the latest filed year, FY2025. Across the full 8-year measurable filed record, median ROIC was −6.6%. Over the v3 recent window (8 measurable filed years), median ROIC was −6.6%. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 4/100.

The balance sheet carried $360M of total debt in FY2025 against $135M of owner earnings — roughly 2.7 years of owner earnings to retire it all. Balance-Sheet Safety scores it 94/100.

Put together: Pricing Power is the strongest of the five filters (96/100) and Returns on Capital the weakest (4/100), which is how UPWK lands at 59/100 — a Shallow moat.

This breakdown is generated from the filed numbers and sub-scores above — no outside narrative, no estimates. Where a filing doesn’t disclose an input, the sentence that would need it is omitted instead of guessed.

FY2015–FY2025 · 11 fiscal years, normalized from UPWK’s SEC filings

Sales, as filed$788M FY2025
$0$500M2015201920232025
Revenue kept after cost of goods77.8% FY2025
0%50%2015201920232025
Standard ROIC or separately labeled Operating ROICROIC 14.0% FY2025

Not meaningful FY2017: invested capital is negative (cash exceeds debt + equity)

−10%0%10%2015201920232025
Cash an owner could take out$135M FY2025
$0$200M2015201920232025

The explained ROIC gaps have filed inputs but no meaningful positive invested-capital denominator. Other gaps mean the item is not in the filings for that year. The series is never interpolated or estimated. The Table view lists every filed value, including operating and net margins, total debt, and share count.

Flagship explainer

How UPWORK INC. makes its money

Start with a dollar of revenue and follow what the filing says remains.

revenueBranching filed flows with values and percentages directly labeled. Missing filing concepts are omitted rather than estimated.Revenue$788M · 100%Cost of revenue$175M · 22%Gross profit$613M · 78%Operating income$129M · 16%Income before tax$153M · 19%Income tax$37.8M · 5%Net income$115M · 15%As of 2025-12-31 · 1 SEC filing sourceBuy Like Buffett · buylikebuffett.com

Honest partial: the filing did not provide a normalized tag for Research and development, Selling, general and administrative; those components are omitted, not plugged.

Table alternative
Filed lineValue% of revenueSource
$788M100%
Cost of revenue$175M22%
$613M78%
$129M16%
Income before tax$153M19%
Income tax$37.8M5%
$115M15%
Source: · event Dec 31, 2025 · retrieved Jul 26, 2026 · annual-row source set
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Flagship explainer

What UPWORK INC. owns — and owes

UPWORK INC.'s filing tags don't support a full breakdown — here's what is filed:

Table alternative
Filed lineValue% of assetsSource
Total assets$1.3B100%
Cash and equivalents$294M23%
$360M28%
Stockholders’ equity$630M49%
Source: · event Dec 31, 2025 · retrieved Jul 26, 2026 · annual-row source set

Flagship explainer

What drives UPWORK INC.’s return on equity?

ROE is five filed business factors multiplied together.

DuPont return on equity factor treeReturn on equity branches into tax burden, interest burden, operating margin, asset turnover, and the equity multiplier.Return on equity19%Tax burden75%net income ÷ pretax incomeInterest burden118%pretax ÷ operating incomeOperating margin16%operating income ÷ revenueAsset turnover0.63×revenue ÷ average assetsEquity multiplier2.08×average assets ÷ average equityAs of 2025-12-31 · 1 SEC filing sourceBuy Like Buffett · buylikebuffett.com
DuPont source inputs
InputValueFiscal yearSource
$115MFY2025
Income before tax$153MFY2025
Operating income$129MFY2025
$788MFY2025
Ending assets$1.3BFY2025
Beginning assets$1.2BFY2024
$630MFY2025
$575MFY2024
Source:
  • SEC filingFiling detailsAccession 0001627475-26-000012
· event Dec 31, 2025 · retrieved Jul 26, 2026 · annual-row source set
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Flagship explainer

Where UPWORK INC.'s cash went

UPWORK INC.’s filing does not supply enough provenance-matched cash-flow lines for a truthful flow chart — here’s what is filed:

Table alternative
Filed lineValue% of cash from operationsSource
Cash from operations$248M100%
Depreciation and amortization$25.7M10%
Source: · event Dec 31, 2025 · retrieved Jul 26, 2026 · annual-row source set

Curated 19-manager tier

Who reported holding UPWORK INC.

Delayed public 13F reports for 2026-Q2—not live positions, trades, or recommendations.

0 holding0 exited1 not holding1/19 resolved18 not retrieved

Named manager positions and quarter-over-quarter changes
ManagerReported positionQuarter-over-quarterFiling accession
Markel / Markel-GaynerNo position reportedNo position reported
Abrams CapitalNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Akre CapitalNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Baupost GroupNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Berkshire HathawayNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Brave Warrior AdvisorsNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Dodge & CoxNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
First EagleNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
FundsmithNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Gardner Russo & QuinnNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Gates Foundation TrustNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Mairs & PowerNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Oakmark / Harris AssociatesNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Pershing SquareNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Polen CapitalNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Sequoia / Ruane CunniffNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Southeastern Asset ManagementNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Tweedy, BrowneNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved
Yacktman Asset ManagementNot retrievedComparison not retrievedFiling not retrieved

Position size uses shares and filed value from each manager’s 13F. Portfolio weight uses the eligible long-share filing denominator. Changes compare only with the immediately preceding calendar quarter.

Source: · event Jun 30, 2026 · retrieved Jul 26, 2026

Flagship explainer

What UPWORK INC. insiders reported

We could not retrieve insider activity for this rendering; no zero-activity claim is shown.

Unavailable: Form 4 activity could not be retrieved for this rendering.

Moat Score history

16 logged readings since Jul 17, 2026 · append-only, never rewritten

Moat Score over timeLast scored reading of each day, on the 0–100 scale58.7 / 100
0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatJul 17, 2026Jul 26, 2026

Breaks in the line mark methodology or normalizer upgrades — readings across versions aren’t compared, so a level shift there isn’t a change in the business.

Tier changesSame-methodology and same-normalizer crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars

  1. Normalizer upgraded unstamped (version unknown)moat-xbrl-normalizer@1.1.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 26, 2026
  2. Methodology upgraded moat-index@2.0.0moat-index@3.0.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 23, 2026
  3. Methodology upgraded moat-index@1.2.0moat-index@2.0.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 20, 2026

Scores are logged append-only and never overwritten — this record cannot be reconstructed retroactively, which is exactly why it’s worth keeping.

Insider activity

Form 4 reports mix P/S market or private transactions with compensation-plan mechanics. Activity casually described as “insider selling” can include compensation mechanics; awards, tax withholding, and option exercises are shown by their exact filed class here, never collapsed into “Bought” or “Sold.”

These are disclosed filing facts and arithmetic aggregates, not a signal or verdict.

The insider-filing service is temporarily unavailable, so no partial or guessed answer is shown for UPWK.

Track record

How UPWORK INC.’s moat rated in each of the years we can reconstruct from its filings — scored only on what was knowable at the time — and what its price and returns did afterward. The score never saw a price; the two are joined only in hindsight, for education, not as a signal.

Point-in-time scores 2018–2025, one methodology version · reconstructed from filings on file each Dec 31 — never with hindsight

Point-in-time Moat Score (dot colored by tier)Indexed price (total-return (dividends reinvested))Rated Wide-moat that year

How to read this: each dot is what the engine would have scored UPWK on that December 31; the line below is its total-return price path (dividends reinvested) in the years since.

0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatPoint-in-time Moat Score53195Indexed price · log scale (2019 = 100)20182020202220242026

Two tracks, one timeline: the score has its own 0–100 scale (top), the price its own 100-based scale (bottom) — never a shared axis. The price path is a total-return (dividends reinvested) index built from the same data the forward returns use; gaps in the score line are years with no reconstructed rating (see the table for why). The Table view carries every value.

What followed, in the years it rated Wide

In the reconstructed history shown, UPWK did not rate Wide-moat in any year, so there is no wide-moat track record to report. That absence is itself the honest answer — we don’t manufacture a comparison where the rating never earned one.

Technology context

#205 of 744 scored Technology companies, ranked by Moat Score.

Nearest peers by Moat Score

  1. #203HHS HARTE HANKS, INC.58.9Shallow moat
  2. #204IIIV i3 Verticals, Inc.58.9Shallow moat
  3. #206FDCTD FDCTECH, INC.58.7Shallow moat
  4. #207RSKIA GEORGE RISK INDUSTRIES, INC.58.6Shallow moat

Compare UPWK with its nearest peers →All Technology companies on the Index →

Common questions about UPWK

Does UPWORK INC. have an economic moat?
Based on its FY2025 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores UPWORK INC. (UPWK) 58.7 out of 100 — a Shallow moat. The five questions behind that score begin at 20% each; if exactly one genuinely lacks data, the other four weights are renormalized and disclosed. revenue and EPS trend 75, pricing power 96, returns on capital 4, balance-sheet safety 94, capital allocation 24.
Is UPWK trading below the conservative owner-earnings estimate?
The value if growth stopped today — a zero-growth baseline — is $4.74 per share. It capitalizes normalized owner earnings at a 9% rate and assumes 0% growth. Versus a recent price of $8.83, that is 86% above value if growth stopped today. The model also publishes a capped-growth comparison, but the zero-growth estimate is the cautious baseline. It assumes trailing owner earnings persist and is unreliable for declining businesses. This is an educational estimate from primary SEC filings, not intrinsic value as a fact or investment advice.
How has UPWK's Moat Score changed over time?
The record logs 16 readings since Jul 17, 2026; the latest reads 58.7 out of 100 (shallow moat). No tier changes on record yet. (Methodology or normalizer upgrades on Jul 20, 2026, Jul 23, 2026, Jul 26, 2026 re-based the score; readings across versions aren't compared.) The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.

Scored from primary SEC filings via the public methodology. Educational only — not a recommendation to buy or sell UPWK. See the disclaimer.