The S&P ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is having a pretty nasty day today. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is down 0.5% to 6,981 points. Well below the 7,000 points it breached last week for the first time since the coronavirus crash last year. But one ASX share is not sharing in the market's mood today. That would be Freelancer Ltd (ASX: FLN).
The Freelancer share price is currently up 5.03% to 84 cents a share. But its gains were far more dramatic earlier in the trading day. Freelancer shares closed at 80 cents yesterday but opened at 82 cents this morning before shooting as high as 93 cents a share soo after open. At the time, that was a gain of more than 16%. It's not just today either. This company has been on a tear for most of the week o far. Since Monday, Freelancer shares are up close to 25%.
So who is Freelancer? and why is this current star of the ASX experiencing such love in a cold market today?
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Who is this company?
Freelancer, as you can probably guess, is a company that facilitates freelancing work. Its flagship website, freelancer.com.au, is an online marketplace of sorts that helps connect freelance workers with jobs.
It's not the kind of jobs you might first expect though. There are less 'mow my lawn' or 'pick up my furniture' jobs on Freelancer. More common jobs include 'design a logo', or 'build my website'. Prospective contractors can bid on jobs, either through a lump-sum payment or an hourly fee.
Freelancer operates around the world. In fact, in FY2020, only 8.4% of completed projects that the company facilitated were in Australia. 24.3% came from the United States, but India, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada were also strongly represented.
Why is the Freelancer share price rising today?
Today's stellar performance in the Freelancer share price appears to be the direct result of an ASX announcement the company made yesterday morning before the market open. This announcement was a quarterly report covering the 3 months to 31 March 2021.
For this period, Freelancer reported that its gross payment volume had ballooned by 39% compared to the prior corresponding period to US$192.9 million, an all-time high. Cash receipts were also up significantly, rising 32.1% to another all-time high of US$12 million. The company also reported a positive net operating cash flow of $4.2 million for the quarter, up from $0.47 million in the prior corresponding quarter.
Freelancer also told us that the company enjoyed a 51% increase in web traffic in FY2020, as well as a 22% rise in registered users, a 17% rise in posted jobs and a 20% bump in freelancer earnings.
So it's likely to be the contents of this quarterly update that are getting investors attention over to the Freelancer share price today. At the current share price, Freelancer has a market capitalisation of $379.5 million.
