Uber Technologies
reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street estimates as gross bookings surged 22%.
Uber
earned 66 cents a share on revenue of $9.94 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting the ride-hailing company to earn 16 cents a share on revenue of $9.76 billion. In the same period last year, Uber earned 29 cents a share on revenue of $8.61 billion.
Uber reported revenue gains for its mobility and delivery segments from the year before by 34% and 6%, respectively, while freight revenue dropped 17%.
Bookings for the quarter increased 22% to $37.6 billion from a year ago, beating the consensus call of $37.1 billion.
“2023 was an inflection point for Uber, proving that we can continue to generate strong, profitable growth at scale,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a press release.
William Blair analyst Ralph Schackart maintained his Outperform rating on the stock. He wrote in a note Wednesday that “importantly, top-line metrics around user engagement remained robust, despite ongoing concerns around a potential for weakening consumer activity given the volatile macroeconomic backdrop.”
For the first quarter, Uber said it expects gross bookings of $37 billion to $38.5 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected first-quarter bookings of $37.1 billion. Uber also said its first-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization should be $1.26 billion to $1.34 billion, while analysts had expected $1.26 billion.
“In our view, Uber continues to be well positioned to drive sustainable growth with bottom-line profitability, something investors may now continue to expect from the company,” Schackart added.
Shares of Uber were rising 1.3% Wednesday to $71.38. The stock has jumped 94% over the last 12 months. Uber recently joined the
S&P 500.
The company qualified for inclusion in the index after its third-quarter earnings report showed profitability over the prior four quarters based on generally accepted accounting principles.
Shares of competitor
Lyft
were down 4.7% to $12.61. Lyft reports fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 13.
Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com
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