Record Q4 bookings couldn’t stop Uber shares falling 7.56% on Wednesday as it forecast a drop in estimated bookings for Q1 and looming autonomous vehicles launched by Tesla in June got on investor nerves.
- Gross bookings grew 18% year-on-year (YoY) to US$44.2 billion, split between $22.8 billion in mobility, $20.1 billion for deliveries and US$3.1 billion for trips - that’s about 33 million trips a day on average.
- Revenue grew 20% YoY to $12.0 billion and combined mobility and delivery revenue grew 23% YoY to $10.7 billion on the back of record demand from office travel and an uptick in deliveries during the Christmas period.
- Net income was $6.9 billion, which includes a $6.4 billion benefit from a tax valuation release and a $556 million benefit (pre-tax) due to net unrealised gains.
- Adjusted EBITDA grew 44% YoY to $1.8 billion and the percentage of gross bookings was 4.2% - up from 3.4% in Q4 2023.
- Cash and equivalents were $7 billion at the end of the fourth quarter, with Uber redeeming $2 billion of its outstanding debt during the quarter.
Uber (NYSE : UBER) is in a race with Elon Musk's Tesla (NASDAQ : TSLA) to launch autonomous vehicles with its Cybercab trial in Austin set for June and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says it's partnering with Alphabet to roll out autonomous vehicle services offered by Alphabet subsidiary Waymo, charging the same price as a human-driven vehicle.
“Uber ended 2024 with our strongest quarter ever, as growth accelerated across MAPCs, trips, and gross bookings,” Khosrowshahi said.
“Our performance has been powered by rapid innovation and execution across multiple priorities, including the massive opportunity presented by autonomous vehicles.
“We enter 2025 with clear momentum and will continue to be relentless against our long-term strategy.”
Uber believes its stock remains undervalued despite the strong fundamentals and is trading at $64.48 a share, down from a six-month high of $86.34 in October.
