Head-To-Head Review: Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) vs. Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK)

Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) and Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Risk & Volatility

Upwork has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Uber Technologies has a beta of 1.12, indicating that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Upwork and Uber Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Upwork	0	10	3	0	2.23
Uber Technologies	3	7	29	1	2.70

Upwork presently has a consensus target price of $15.50, indicating a potential upside of 75.74%. Uber Technologies has a consensus target price of $104.68, indicating a potential upside of 48.90%. Given Upwork’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Upwork is more favorable than Uber Technologies.

Profitability

This table compares Upwork and Uber Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Upwork	13.81%	17.92%	8.54%
Uber Technologies	15.91%	41.40%	18.21%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Upwork and Uber Technologies”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Upwork	$787.78 million	1.38	$115.43 million	$0.81	10.89
Uber Technologies	$52.02 billion	2.75	$10.05 billion	$4.01	17.53

Uber Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than Upwork. Upwork is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Uber Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

77.7% of Upwork shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.2% of Uber Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.9% of Upwork shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of Uber Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Uber Technologies beats Upwork on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Upwork

Upwork Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a work marketplace that connects businesses with various independent professionals and agencies in the United States, India, the Philippines, and internationally. The company’s work marketplace provides access to talent with various skills across a range of categories, including administrative support, sales and marketing, design and creative, and customer service, as well as web, mobile, and software development. Its work marketplace also enables clients to streamline workflows, such as talent sourcing, outreach, and contracting. The company’s work marketplace offers access to various functionalities for remote engagements with talent, including communication and collaboration, ability to receive talent invoices through their work marketplace, and payment protection. Its marketplace offerings include Upwork Payroll and Upwork Enterprise, as well as managed and escrow services. The company was formerly known as Elance-oDesk, Inc. and changed its name to Upwork Inc. in May 2015. Upwork Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Uber Technologies

Uber Technologies, Inc. develops and operates proprietary technology applications in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia excluding China and Southeast Asia. It operates through three segments: Mobility, Delivery, and Freight. The Mobility segment connects consumers with a range of transportation modalities, such as ridesharing, carsharing, micromobility, rentals, public transit, taxis, and other modalities; and offers riders in a variety of vehicle types, as well as financial partnerships products and advertising services. The Delivery segment allows to search for and discover restaurants to grocery, alcohol, convenience, and other retails; order a meal or other items; and Uber direct, a white-label Delivery-as-a-Service for retailers and restaurants, as well as advertising. The Freight segment manages transportation and logistics network, which connects shippers and carriers in digital marketplace including carriers upfronts, pricing, and shipment booking; and provides on-demand platform to automate logistics end-to-end transactions for small-and medium-sized business to global enterprises. The company was formerly known as Ubercab, Inc. and changed its name to Uber Technologies, Inc. in February 2011. Uber Technologies, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.