- Uber reported fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday that beat analysts’ top and bottom-line estimates.
- In a prepared statement, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber finished 2022 with its “strongest quarter yet” as its “strongest year ever.”
- For the first quarter of 2023, Uber said it expects gross bookings to grow between 20% and 24% year-over-year on a constant currency basis.
Uber informed of fourth quarter earnings Wednesday beat analysts’ estimates. The stock closed up 5% for the day.
Here’s how the company did:
- earnings per share: A loss of 29 cents versus the 18 percent expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
- Income: $8.6 billion versus the $8.49 billion expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
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Revenue for the quarter was up 49% year over year. Uber said net income for the quarter was $595 million, of which $756 million was net profit due to unrealized gains on equity investments.
In a prepared statement, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber finished 2022 with its “strongest quarter yet” as its “strongest year ever.” He said the impact of the pandemic on the company’s mobility business is “well and truly behind us now” and active drivers hit an all-time high during the quarter. He added that the company has also achieved a new milestone of completing 2 billion trips in a single quarter for the first time, at an average of about 1 million trips per hour.
“Importantly, we achieved these results while maintaining or improving our competitive position in our key markets,” he said in the statement.
According to StreetAccount, the company reported adjusted EBITDA of $665 million, which was higher than the $620 million expected by analysts. Gross bookings for the quarter came in at $30.7 billion, up 19% year over year.
For the first quarter of 2023, Uber said it expects gross bookings to grow between 20% and 24% year-over-year on a constant currency basis, and adjusted EBITDA of $660 million to $700 million.
Here’s how Uber’s largest business segments fared this quarter:
Mobility (Gross Booking): $14.9 billion versus $14.8 billion expected by StreetAccount analysts
Delivery (Total Booking): $14.3 billion versus the $14.3 billion expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount.
Uber relied heavily on growth in its Eats delivery business during the COVID pandemic, but its mobility segment outpaced Eats’ revenue in the first, second and third quarters of 2022 as riders began taking more trips. This trend continued during the fourth quarter, as the company’s mobility segment reported $4.1 billion in revenue, while delivery reported $2.9 billion.
Uber’s freight business booked $1.5 billion in sales for the quarter.
Monthly active platform users grew to 131 million in the fourth quarter, up 11% year over year. During this period, 2.1 billion trips were completed on the platform, up 19% year-on-year.
Khosrowshahi told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday that Uber is seeing no signs of weakness in consumer spending. He added that the company could benefit from the shift in service spending from retail to post-pandemic.
“We have seen and seen,” he said. “We are not seeing any signs of consumer weakness at this point.”
However, Khosrowshahi noted that about 70% of drivers are saying that inflation is a factor in their decision to get on Uber’s platform.
“We can benefit from that trend, we’ll see where it takes us,” he said.
Uber will hold its quarterly call with investors at 8:00 am ET Wednesday.
Credit: www.cnbc.com /