Uber shares jump after food delivery service reports profits for first time
Uber shares last night jumped more than 6 per cent in post-market trading after its food delivery service, Uber Eats, reported its first profit ever.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, Uber Eats reported a $25m EBITDA profit, while Uber’s revenue grew 83 per cent to $5.8bn, beating analysts’ forecast of $5.36bn.
The group’s mobility gross bookings grew 67 per cent to $11.3bn, as passenger demand increased to almost pre-pandemic levels.
“In Q4, more consumers were active on our platform than ever before, delivery reached adjusted EBITDA profitability, and Mobility Gross Bookings approached pre-pandemic levels,” said chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi,
“While the Omicron variant began to impact our business in late December, mobility is already starting to bounce back, with Gross Bookings up 25% month-on-month in the most recent week.”
Despite outperforming the quarterly guidance and delivering a $540m adjusted EBITDA, Uber decided to lower forecasts for the first quarter of 2022. Gross bookings predictions have gone down from $26bn to $25bn, while EBITDA predictions were lowered to $100m.
Commenting on the results, Interactive Investor’s head of investment Victoria Scholar said: “As government restrictions ease around the world, the business performed well on both fronts in the last quarter. However near-term headwinds linger as Omicron continues to weigh on the current quarter with weaker ride hailing demand expected until the latest variant passes.”