Uber Technologies saw a near 10% drop in shares on Thursday following a weaker-than-anticipated third quarter gross bookings. The ride-hailing titan announced a 16% year-on-year growth in gross bookings reaching $41 billion, falling short of Visible Alpha's estimated $41.3 billion. The number of trips increased by 17% to hit 2.9 billion, in line with expectations.
Contrarily, Uber's revenue and net income for the period exceeded analysts' predictions. The firm reported $11.19 billion in revenue, outperforming the projected $10.98 billion. Additionally, net income reached $2.6 billion, surpassing estimates largely due to a $1.7 billion pre-tax benefit from Uber's revaluation of its equity investments.
Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi highlighted the company's successful quarter stating, "We delivered yet another record quarter of profitable growth at a global scale, reflecting the strength of our platform, which now has over 25 million Uber One members." He also mentioned the company's ongoing progress in its autonomous vehicle strategy in partnership with several AV companies, such as Waymo.
Despite this, Uber's shares have declined from record highs reached earlier this month following Tesla's robotaxi event. Uber could face challenges if Tesla, led by CEO Elon Musk, successfully deploys driverless robotaxis, potentially shaking up the ride-hailing industry. Nonetheless, the lack of detail in the recent event has left investors discontented.