Uber Technologies (UBER) shares moved lower Thursday after the stock was halted from trading during its investor day presentation in New York, where the company issued near-term profit and bookings forecasts.
Uber said it will report $5 billion in operating profits by 2024, CFO Nelson Chai told investors Thursday, compared to a loss of $800 million in 2021, with gross bookings rising to between $165 billion and $175 billion. That tally would represent a 140% gain from the $90 billion in gross bookings recorded last year.
Gross bookings for 2024 are expected in the region of $165 billion and $175 billion, with the company forecasting adjusted earnings of $5 billion by 2024.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said it's a "worthwhile target, could there be upside, absolutely, but let's work on that target for now."
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Uber shares were marked 4% lower on the session at $38.57 each after resuming trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock traded at $41.69 each prior to the halt. Lyft (LYFT) shares, meanwhile, fell 4.6% to $42.00 each.
Uber posted stronger-than-expected fourth quarter earnings after the close of trading Wednesday, and eked out a small adjusted profit of $82 million for the three months ending in December, its second profitable quarter in a row.
Revenues surged 83% from last year's pandemic trough to $5.8 billion, Uber said, while delivery revenues, which includes Uber Eats, rose 78% to $2.42 billion.
Khosrowshahi, however, said uncertainly linked to the fading Omicron wave would continue to affect ride activity, but noted that "mobility is already starting to bounce back, with gross bookings up 25% month-on-month in the most recent week."
D.A. Davidson analyst Tom White re-affirmed his buy rating on Uber following what he called a "solid 4Q’21 characterized by strong topline trends in Delivery, a bit of late-quarter Omicron softness in Mobility, and strong EBITDA performance across the board (including the first positive adj. EBITDA quarter for Delivery)."
"Following LYFT’s results the night prior, the market was somewhat prepared for the possibility of a light 1Q guide related to Omicron, and, while UBER guided under consensus for gross bookings and adjusted earnings, the company called out recovering trends exiting January and (perhaps most importantly, in our view) was able to still guide to sequential improvement in consolidated adjusted earnings," he added.
Earlier this week, Lyft issued a muted near-term outlook following a fourth quarter earnings report that was heavily-affected by the December surge in Omicron infections.
Lyft said March quarter revenues would come in between $800 million and $850 million a notable 15% decline from prior quarter levels that new CEO Elaine Paul put down to the lingering impact of the Omicron surge on ride demand.
Lyft generated $970 million in fourth quarter revenues, with revenue per ride rising 13.5% to $52, but still posted a full year loss of around $1 billion as ride use remains around 30% south of pre-Covid levels.
"Prior to Omicron, we were anticipating strong sequential rideshare ride growth in Q1. This was based on the demand trends we saw in Q4," Paul told investors on a conference call late Tuesday.
"However, given the impact that Omicron has had on rideshare volumes, we now anticipate rideshare rides will be down slightly in Q1 versus Q4. In addition, the first quarter of every year always has rideshare ride mix headwinds with shorter rides and less use of bikes and scooters."
