10:47 AM EDT, 10/31/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Uber Technologies ( UBER ) on Thursday delivered stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings and revenue, but the ride-hailing company's gross bookings fell short of Wall Street estimates.
The company posted net income of $1.20 a share for the September quarter, up from $0.10 the year before and ahead of the consensus on Visible Alpha for $0.42. The result included a pretax benefit of $1.7 billion mainly related to unrealized gains on Uber's ( UBER ) equity investments. Revenue advanced 20% to $11.19 billion, topping Visible Alpha's projection for $10.98 billion.
"We delivered yet another record quarter of profitable growth at a global scale, reflecting the strength of our platform," Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement. "We continue to build with an eye towards the future, optimizing our products for new customer segments and geographies."
Gross bookings grew 16% to $40.97 billion, but missed the Visible Alpha consensus for $41.25 billion. Shares of the company dropped 9.9% in Thursday trading.
Mobility gross bookings inclined 17% year over year in the third quarter, while delivery and freight increased 16% and 2%, respectively. Trips rose 17% to 2.87 billion on a yearly basis while monthly active platform consumers climbed 13% to 161 million, according to the company.
"Uber ( UBER ) continues to deliver solid growth and margin expansion but expectations have risen accordingly and the magnitude of profit beats has normalized in recent quarters," Wedbush Securities said in a Thursday client note.
For the ongoing quarter, the company anticipates gross bookings to be in a range of $42.75 billion to $44.25 billion, reflecting growth of 16% to 20% at constant currency on a yearly basis. Analysts on Visible Alpha are currently estimating $43.7 billion. The company is on track to deliver 20% gross bookings growth on a constant currency basis for the full year, according to Chief Financial Officer Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah. Trips growth on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter is expected to be similar compared with the September quarter.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization is forecast to come in between $1.78 billion and $1.88 billion for the current quarter, Uber ( UBER ) said. In the September quarter, adjusted EBITDA rose to $1.69 billion from $1.09 billion a year ago.
"We think Uber ( UBER ) is well positioned to deliver mid-teens bookings growth over the intermediate term with rising margins and strong (free cash flow) conversion," Wedbush analysts led by Scott Devitt wrote in the note. The brokerage maintained its outperform rating on Uber's ( UBER ) stock with a price target of $86.
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