Uber Technologies shares are sharply lower in after-hours trading Wednesday after the ride-sharing and food-delivery company postedbetter-than-expected top-line growth for the June quarter, offset by a decline in the profitability in its ride-sharing “mobility” business as it boosted incentives in an effort to expand its pool of drivers.
The same issue afflicted Lyft’s (ticker: LYFT) results in the June quarter.
Uber stock (UBER) in late trading is down 4.3%, at $40.
For the quarter, Uber reported revenue of $3.93 billion, up 105% from a year ago, or 95% in constant currency, slightly ahead of the Wall Street consensus forecast of $3.74 billion. Delivery revenues were $1.96 billion, up 122%, or 107% in constant currency, and ahead of the Street consensus forecast at $1.7 billion.
The ride-sharing mobility segment had revenue of $1.62 billion, up 106%, or 98% adjusted for currency, but a little below consensus at $1.7 billion. Freight revenue rose 65% to $348 billion.
Gross bookings in the quarter were $21.9 billion, up 114%, or 104% in constant currency. That includes delivery bookings of $12.9 billion, up 85%, or 75% adjusted for currency; mobility bookings of $8.6 billion, up 184%, or 174% on a currency-adjusted basis; and $348 million for freight, up 64%, or 65% adjusted for currency.
Uber said adjusted Ebitda—or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization—was a loss of $509 million, which compares to a loss of $837 million in the year-ago quarter. Yesterday, rival Lyft posted its first-ever quarterly profit by the same measure.
The company said mobility-segment adjusted Ebitda was $179 million, up from $50 million a year ago but down from $298 million in the March quarter, while delivery had a loss on the same basis of $161 million, narrowing from $232 million a year ago.
The company said its “take rate,” the portion it keeps from each transaction, improved to 15.2% from 12.7% a year ago in delivery, but fell to 18.7% from 25.8% in mobility.
Uber said that take rate and adjusted Ebitda in the mobility business were impacted by “elevated investments in reviving driver availability, particularly in the U.S.”
Uber said total trips for the quarter were 1.51 billion, up 4% sequentially and 105% higher than the year-earlier quarter. Monthly active customers were 101 million, up 3% from the March quarter and 84% from a year earlier.
Uber said airport trips in its mobility business were up 67% from the March quarter and 617% higher than a year ago, as some travel resumed after last year’s pandemic shutdowns.
“In Q2 we invested in recovery by investing in drivers and we made strong progress, with monthly active drivers and couriers in the US increasing by nearly 420,000 from February to July,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement. “Our platform is getting stronger each quarter, with consumers who engage with both Mobility and Delivery now generating nearly half of our total company gross bookings.”
Chief Financial Officer Nelson Chai added that the company is “now well positioned to reach adjusted Ebitda profitability by the fourth quarter.” The company expects third adjusted Ebitda to be a loss of less than $100 million, with gross bookings in the $22 billion to $24 billion range.