01:58 PM EDT, 04/29/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Uber Technologies ( UBER ) is expected to report better-than-projected first-quarter earnings and bookings, with the company's mobility business likely to be the "bright spot," BofA Securities said Monday.

The ride hailing company is scheduled to report first-quarter results May 8. BofA projects earnings at $0.26 per share and gross bookings at $38.27 billion, topping Wall Street's views for $0.22 and $37.96 billion, respectively. The brokerage expects revenue of $10.09 billion, which is said would match the Street's estimates. BofA sees mobility bookings at $19.18 billion versus the Street's $19.14 billion view. The firm said its outlook assumes 28% growth.

"We remain constructive on Uber ( UBER ) as our top travel/transportation stock given bookings and (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) growth well above peers," BofA analysts Justin Post and Michael McGovern said in a note. "Data points for (first-quarter) mobility spend suggest accelerating trends, while restaurant may have decelerated, though Uber's ( UBER ) other verticals should drive above-industry trends."

On Uber's ( UBER ) earnings call, its management will have a chance to address potential risk from autonomous vehicles given Tesla's (TSLA) focus on a robotaxi, the analysts said. "In our view, Tesla's focus is not so much on competing with Uber ( UBER ) as it is unlocking use cases for Tesla customers that want better asset utilization from their vehicles," BofA said.

Uber ( UBER ) and Tesla could form a partnership in the long term to give the electric vehicle maker's car owners the ability to put their unutilized vehicles onto Uber ( UBER ), as compared to only having them in a separate app that would potentially have less customer scale than Uber ( UBER ), the analysts said. "That said, additional announcements around (Tesla's) robotaxis are likely to continue to act as a negative headline risk for Uber ( UBER ) stock," especially around Tesla's Aug. 8 robotaxi event, according to the note.

Overall, the industry is likely "years away" from full autonomous vehicles becoming a viable and reliable solution for rides, the analysts said. In the long term, growing competition in the autonomous vehicle industry could be a positive for Uber ( UBER ), they wrote.

For its second quarter, Uber ( UBER ) is likely to guide bookings in a range of $39.5 billion to $40.5 billion, suggesting 5% and 19% growth sequentially and annually, respectively. The company's EBITDA is pegged at $1.42 billion to $1.50 billion. If the company's first-quarter EBITDA "beats significantly," there could be additional upside in the current quarter, according to the note.

"We think Uber ( UBER ) remains one of the best large-cap growth stories in the sector," the analyst said. BofA reiterated its buy rating and a $91 price objective on the Uber ( UBER ) stock.

Price: 68.35, Change: -0.70, Percent Change: -1.01