Uber's ride results disappoint even as bookings top estimates
Total gross bookings — a closely watched metric that includes ride hails, delivery orders and driver and merchant earnings but not tips — came in at $46.8 billion for the three months ended June 30, topping analysts' estimates. But that was mostly thanks to a strong showing from the company's food-delivery unit. Bookings for Uber's rideshare division — the business it remains best known for — fell short of Wall Street's projections, with $23.8 billion versus an average estimate of $23.9 billion.
Investors responded by sending the stock down as much as 3.5% on Wednesday. It has been up 47% so far this year, outpacing the S&P 500 Index.
The market reaction overshadowed a rosy third-quarter outlook. The bookings forecast for the current period represents an 18% to 21% growth rate, according to Bloomberg calculations, faster than the 17% gain Uber saw in the second quarter.
Uber also announced new share buybacks of an additional $20 billion, reflecting its 'continued confidence in the business,' Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said in prepared remarks. The company still has $3 billion remaining from its prior authorization.
Its results are likely to set expectations for the broader ride-hailing and food-delivery industries, as broader concerns remain about the health of the US consumer. Rideshare peer Lyft Inc. and delivery rival DoorDash Inc. are both scheduled to report results after the close on Wednesday.
The delivery business, which fueled the strong second-quarter bookings, saw more users placing orders in the US, Australia, Canada and Mexico. Khosrowshahi also cited an uptick in grocery and retail merchants on the platform. The company completed its acquisition of Turkish delivery app Trendyol Go at the end of the second quarter, which will help boost business in the country, he added.
On the rideshare side, Uber has been offering more types of trip types to cater to different user needs. While ride prices have been increasing less sharply as of late thanks to moderating insurance costs, the firm said its efforts to improve affordability in the US are also helping boost trip growth in the current period. In May, for example, it launched cheaper pooled rides and a monthly ride pass allowing commuters to lock in prices on frequently taken routes.
Uber partially attributed the results to the cross-selling advantage it has for the two core services it offers. Khosrowshahi said that 12% of annualized delivery bookings — translating to $10 billion — are generated via the Eats tab within the Uber rideshare app.
Subscribers for Uber One, the company's paid membership program, jumped about 60% from the year-earlier period, topping 36 million. Those members now generate 40% of total gross bookings.
Internationally, Uber said it's 'redoubling' efforts to increase its presence outside large European cities, as well as in new markets through taxi partnerships. Competition is set to heat up in the continent after rival Lyft entered new European countries through its acquisition of the taxi app Freenow.
For the current period, gross bookings will range from $48.25 billion to $49.75 billion, Uber said. Wall Street was projecting $47.6 billion, according to Bloomberg-compiled estimates. The outlook includes a small bump from the completion of the Trendyol Go purchase and some currency tailwinds.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the second-quarter were a record $2.12 billion, ahead of the $2.09 billion that analysts had forecast. For the third quarter, Uber sees adjusted Ebitda from $2.19 billion to $2.29 billion, the mid-point of which also beats estimates.
The company is also looking to monetize more of its $8.7 billion equity stakes — most of which are publicly listed — to help seed investments related to the commercialization of autonomous vehicles, said Chief Financial Officer Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah in prepared remarks.
During the earnings call, Khosrowshahi laid out a clearer vision of that strategy. So far, Uber has struck 20 autonomous partnerships across its ride-hailing, delivery and freight business, including offering Waymo robotaxis on its platform in Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta. It has also invested in fleet managers that handle daily maintenance and depot operations on the ground.
Those efforts are still in an early stage, but Khosrowshahi said the company will be using the initial launches to assess how much revenue each robotaxi generates on a per-day basis, so it can secure more third-party financing to scale future autonomous fleets.
'We've talked to private equity players, we've talked to banks,' Khosrowshahi said. 'While it will take some time, we're very confident that these assets are going to be financeable. And for us, we believe it's a competitive advantage for us to be able to use a relatively modest part of our cash flow to fund kind of the catalyst getting started here.'
Uber will potentially invest in real estate, facilities and vehicles in the autonomous ecosystem, as it's doing in its recently announced deal with Lucid Group Inc., Mahendra-Rajah added in the call.
'This is really to help us build our learning base and to build enough information for us to be able to engage more credibly with financing partners, having run these at scale ourselves, and then be able to bring them into the fold with real data on how they can earn a return in this space,' Mahendra-Rajah said.
'That has been a pretty consistent investment approach for Uber,' he added. 'We go into markets and go into products starting at a loss, we build scale, we build our experience, and then over time we know exactly the levers that are necessary to turn to get that profitability.'
Lung writes for Bloomberg.
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