Uber May Report Second-Smallest Loss in Nearly Six Years

Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER), the leading global ride sharing company by market share prior to the pandemic, will probably report its second-narrowest quarterly net loss in nearly six years as revenue rises to highest level in more than five years amid surging demand for its ride hailing services after the pandemic.

Uber will probably post a loss of $0.21 as share compared to a loss of $1.28 in the prior-year quarter. Revenue is expected to rise 68% to $8.1 billion, the highest level since early 2017, according to average estimates from Visible Alpha.

Uber's delivery business is posting slower sales growth after seeing an increase in online order volumes during the pandemic. Volume in the company's ride-hailing business has been rebounding over the past year. Uber recently announced plans to expand its advertising business by allowing targeted ads across its ride-hailing app. This practice could attract heightened scrutiny from regulators after Uber suffered a high-profile data breach in September.

A key metric for Uber's overall performance is gross bookings, a measure of the total dollar amount generated by Uber's combined ride-hailing, delivery, and freight-shipping businesses. Analysts expect Uber's total gross bookings to rise 28% to $29.6 billion, the highest level since at least the first quarter of 2017.

Uber shares have dropped 38% in the last year compared to the 15% decline of the S&P 500.

Uber Earnings History

Uber has struggled to achieve sustained profitability. The company has reported a profit in only three of the past 22 quarters.

Uber's revenue rose during every quarter during three years through early 2020, then fell for four straight quarters amid the pandemic through the first quarter of 2021. Since then, revenue has recovered for five straight quarters.

Source: Visible Alpha

The Key Metric

The key metric of Uber's gross bookings represents the total amount of business done through all of Uber's apps and business lines. Gross bookings are positively correlated with Uber's revenue, the portion of gross bookings that the company claims as its own.

Uber's gross bookings fell for three consecutive quarters at the start of the pandemic, and since then have rebounded for six quarters in a row through the second quarter of this year. In the second quarter, they rose 33% to $29 billion.