Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER) shares jumped as much as 10% on Thursday after the ride-hailing reported a narrower Q4 loss than expected and also moving up its profitability forecast.
Uber’s Q4 revenue tops analysts’ estimates
The company reported revenue of $4.07 billion, which is a 37% increase from Q4 2018 beating analysts’ estimates of $4.06 billion. Uber also saw its gross bookings increase by 28% to around $18.1 billion on over 1.9 billion trips. However, the company reported a loss of $1.1 billion or $0.64 per share, which was lower than the expected loss of $0.68 per share. The loss included around $243 million attributed to stock-based compensation.
For 2020 the company is predicting a loss of $1.35 billion, which is less than analysts’ estimate of a loss of $2.83 billion. Uber’s rides segment and fees from drivers generated $13.51 billion in bookings missing then $13.60 billion projection predicted by analysts.
According to the company, growth in rides were down to the on-going expansion globally, higher-priced premium offerings for riders such as Uber Comfort that use cars with more head and legroom as well as access to drop-off and pick up of riders at airports globally.
Uber to continue enhancing its ridesharing segment globally
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi indicated that going forward; they will focus on growing the ride-hailing segment geographically by enhancing driver-to-passenger matching and pricing as well as through enterprise offerings. The CEO added that Uber for Business will help the company to improve margins, and it will not drive the growth of bookings. Similarly, the company has been promoting low-cost rides on its app, which include electric bikes and JUMP dockless. Recently JUMP expanded to New Zealand, Australia, and Washington DC.
Equally, the Uber Eats segment has been growing significantly, and gross bookings were up 71% to $4.37 billion topping analysts’ estimates for $4.13 billion. This included payments from delivery partners and restaurants. The company is still paying out a huge amount of what it calls excess driver incentives and driver referrals to drivers in the ridesharing and food segments.
