Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Sep 25, 2026
Upwork, Inc (UPWK)
A forensic read on Upwork, Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
10.2
P / E (ttm)
18.3%
ROE
$1.0B
Market cap
2.4%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Upwork, Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.9, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+1.2%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +2% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+1.2%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~1.2% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~2%.
+10.3%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +10.3% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 20% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 10.3%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
13.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 13.6% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -1.5%. After-tax operating profit was ($10M) in FY2023 and $97M in FY2025, with operating income at -1.6% of revenue in FY2023, 8.5% in FY2024 and 16.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2023–FY2025: short-term debt is tagged in one of those two fiscal years and not the other, and an untagged line enters this calculation as zero, so any change in the base would be a change in what the filer tagged.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$787.8M
Revenue Growth YoY+2.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+6.9%
Net Margin14.7%
Free Cash Flow$223.1M
Return on Equity18.3%
Debt / Equity0.57x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Upwork, Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?