AP Photo/Richard Drew
- Uber will report its first quarter earnings Thursday afternoon, its first disclosure since going public this month.
- The ride-hailing giant has already forecast that it will lose around $1 billion in the three-month period.
- Analysts will have plenty of questions for management about gross bookings, take rate, and other industry-specific metrics.
- Wall Street remains bullish on the stock, with an average price target well above where shares are currently trading.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Fresh off the heels of one of this year’s largest initial public offerings, Uber is set to release it’s first earnings report on Thursday after markets close.
The company has already iterated that it expects to lose around $1 billion for the first quarter, a number the nine Wall Street analysts polled by Bloomberg also expect.
Revenue for the three months ended March 31 should be between $3.04 billion and $3.10 billion, the company said in unaudited financial statements in April, compared to $2.5 billion the same quarter a year ago. Total trips are expected to be 1.55 billion, compared to 1.36 billion a year ago.
While the numbers may not provide much of a surprise, analysts will have plenty of questions for management on the first earnings call about industry-specific metrics that can help gauge growth.
"While Uber has already disclosed unaudited results ahead of its IPO, all focus from the Street will be around the underlying bookings and take rate metric outlook for the remainder of the year," Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in a note to clients Wednesday.
"While investors have been expecting take rate compression as competition pushes irrationality and rider incentives in the near-term, we expect a focus on a path to improvement and accelerating revenue growth over the remainder of 2019 and into 2020, particularly as Lyft noted on its 1Q call that it believes the domestic rideshare market is becoming increasingly rational."
However, Lyft declined to give specific details like gross bookings in its first earnings report since going public, so it’s unclear how much specificity investors will receive from Uber’s executive team.
After posting the largest ever first-day dollar loss of any American IPO since 1975, Uber’s first few weeks of trading have mirrored rival Lyft, which has also lost significant market value right out of the gate.
Prices have normalized somewhat, and the stock is trading near $40 Thursday, but shares are still well off Wall Street’s average price target of $54 by about 25%.
"Despite the "negative noise" post IPO, including pressure on ride sharing brethren Lyft, our positive investment thesis on Uber remains unchanged," Ives said, reiterating his $65 price target for the stock.
More Uber news:
- Uber and Lyft are betting on self-driving cars to become profitable. But that may not happen, new research from MIT suggests.
- Traders have a $1.5 billion bet riding against Uber
- Your Uber ride could get 80% cheaper over the next decade
- From food delivery to self-driving cars, here’s how all of Uber and Lyft’s side-businesses compare
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See Also:
- Uber says it will soon ban passengers with low ratings
- Uber and Lyft are betting on self-driving cars to become profitable. But that may not happen, new research from MIT suggests.
- Terrifying video shows a Lyft driver being attacked by a passenger, and it highlights a major fear of many drivers
SEE ALSO: Uber says it will soon ban passengers with low ratings
Source: Business Insider – grapier@businessinsider.com (Graham Rapier)