Uber Stock Is Down Despite Reporting 'Strongest Quarter Ever': Here's Why Investors Are Tapping The Brakes

Uber Technologies Inc UBER shares are stuck in reverse on Wednesday after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings and warned that a strong dollar could impact bookings in the first quarter.

What Happened: Uber reported fourth-quarter revenue of $12 billion, beating estimates of $11.77 billion, but adjusted earnings per share of 23 cents fell short of estimates of 50 cents, per Reuters.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called it Uber’s “strongest quarter ever” as growth accelerated across monthly active platform consumers, trips and gross bookings.

“Our performance has been powered by rapid innovation and execution across multiple priorities, including the massive opportunity presented by autonomous vehicles. We enter 2025 with clear momentum and will continue to be relentless against our long-term strategy,” the Uber CEO said.

Looking ahead, Uber guided for first-quarter gross bookings of $42 billion to $43.5 billion, held in check by an estimated 5.5% headwind to year-over-year growth due to a strong dollar. Analysts were reportedly expecting first-quarter gross bookings around $43.5 billion. The company also guided for first-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $1.79 billion to $1.89 billion, which was slightly below analyst forecasts of $1.85 billion at the midpoint.

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The company’s forward outlook appears to be overshadowing Uber’s strong growth in the quarter. Here’s a look at other key metrics in Uber’s fourth-quarter report.

Total revenue was up 20% on a year-over-year basis, while combined mobility and delivery revenue grew 23% year-over-year. Income from operations totaled $770 million, up $118 million from the prior year’s quarter.

Monthly active platform consumers totaled 171 million in the quarter, up 14% year-over-year. Trips grew 18% year-over-year to 3.1 billion and driver and courier earnings increased 16% year-over-year.

Uber also announced an accelerated share repurchase program to repurchase $1.5 billion worth of its common stock as part of its previously announced $7 billion buyback.

UBER Price Action: Uber shares were down 6.95% at $64.95 at the time of publication Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro.

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Photo: courtesy of Uber.