Uber Stock Plunges as Q3 Bookings Disappoint

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Uber Technologies shares are dropping Thursday, as the ride-hailing giant posted weaker-than-expected gross bookings in the third quarter.
• The company said gross bookings rose 16% year-over-year to $41 billion in the third quarter, below estimates from Visible Alpha of $41.3 billion.
• Uber’s top- and bottom-line results handily beat analysts’ estimates, however. It posted revenue of $11.19 billion and net income of $2.6 billion for the third quarter.

Uber Technologies (UBER) shares are dropping almost 10% Thursday, as the ride-hailing giant posted weaker-than-expected gross bookings in the third quarter.

The company said gross bookings rose 16% year-over-year to $41 billion in the third quarter, below estimates from Visible Alpha of $41.3 billion. Trips grew 17% to 2.9 billion, in line with estimates. 

Uber’s top- and bottom-line results handily beat analysts’ estimates, however. The company reported revenue for the period of $11.19 billion versus the $10.98 billion estimate. Net income of $2.6 billion also beat estimates by a wide margin, although that included a $1.7 billion pre-tax benefit from gains in Uber’s revaluation of its equity investments.

Uber CEO Says Company Continues to ‘Advance’ AV Strategy

“We delivered yet another record quarter of profitable growth at a global scale, reflecting the strength of our platform, which now has over 25 million Uber One members,” Uber Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dara Khosrowshahi said, adding that the company is continuing “to advance our autonomous strategy.”

Uber has announced a number of partnerships with autonomous vehicle (AV) companies like Waymo over the last several months.

Uber shares have gained close to 30% since the start of the year, though down from record levels reached in the days following Tesla’s (TSLA) robotaxi event earlier this month. Uber stands to suffer if Elon Musk’s company rolls out driverless robotaxis and disrupts the ride-hailing industry but the event this month was light on details and underwhelmed investors.

UPDATE—Oct. 31, 2024: This article has been updated to include more recent share prices.