One day after Uber reported quarterly results that included slower-than-expected sales growth and an overall loss of more than $5 billion, the main question on many minds was just where the ride-hailing giant’s business is heading.
In its second quarterly report since going public in May, Uber said Thursday that during the quarter that ended June 30, it lost $5.24 billion, on revenue of $3.17 billion. Excluding one-time items, Uber lost $656 million, or $4.72 a share, which fell short of the $2.70-a-share loss and $3.36 billion in revenue expected by Wall Street analysts.
Overall, it was a mixed bag of a quarter for Uber. The company’s sales rose 14% from the same period a year ago, but it also was the slowest year-over-year sales growth in Uber’s history. Gross bookings, or what Uber receives from rides and deliveries before it pays its drivers their commissions, rose 31%, to $15.8 billion. But losses excluding one-time items also more than doubled from the $292 million Uber lost in the second quarter of 2018.
By Friday, Uber saw what investors thought of its results, with the company’s shares falling more than 7%, to $39.87. Uber went public in May at $45 a share.
“(The) big picture (is) Uber has many moving parts to their story,” said Gene Munster, managing partner of research firm Loup Ventures. “Bottom line, as a growth company, you have to beat your revenue numbers — and that didn’t happen this quarter.”
Uber’s latest update came on the heels of what has been a season of upheaval under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who has worked to re-shape the company’s operations since taking over from former CEO Travis Kalanick in 2017.
Since Uber’s May IPO, Khosrowshahi oversaw the June departures of Chief Operating Officer Barney Harford and Chief Marketing Officer Rebecca Messina. Just days after Huffington and Cohler’s departures, Uber said it laid off about one-third of its marketing staff, or about 400 people, in an effort to trim costs. Then in July, directors Arianna Huffington and Matt Cohler stepped down from Uber’s board.
Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, gave Uber a “B (grade) performance” for the quarter, saying that the company’s results show that it “continues to be in investment mode with more markets and business it is focused on developing.”
Ives said that as Uber’s builds out its investments in areas such as its Uber Eats food delivery service, Uber Freight and its international markets, “it should get more out of (those) over the long-term.”
