Ride-sharing giant meets expectations, bookings jump 19% year-over-year

Ride-sharing giant Uber (UBER) reported its fiscal first quarter earnings ahead of the opening bell on Tuesday, with a slight beat on revenue and meeting analysts’ expectations on losses per share.

Gross bookings for the company jumped 19% year-over-year, while the company’s Mobility business continued to improve with revenue climbing 40% year-over-year. The results come as rival Lyft (LYFT), which laid off 26% of its staff in April, continues to struggle to keep up with Uber.

Here are the most important numbers from the report, compared to what Wall Street was expecting, according to data from Bloomberg.

• Revenue: $8.8 billion versus $8.7 billion expected

• Adj losses per share: $0.08 versus $0.08 expected

• Gross bookings: $31.4 billion versus $31.4 billion expected

• Mobility: $14.9 billion versus $14.8 billion expected

• Delivery: $15 billion versus $14.9 billion expected

• Freight: $1.4 billion versus $1.6 billion expected

Shares of Uber rose 7% in the premarket following the announcement.

“We significantly accelerated Q1 trip growth to 24% from 19% last quarter, with Mobility trip growth of 32%, as a result of improved earner and consumer engagement,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement. “Looking ahead, we are focused on extending our product, scale and platform advantages to sustain market-leading top and bottom-line growth beyond 2023.”

Uber’s improved performance could hold as an indicator of a strong consumer. That’s especially true when it comes to the Delivery business, which adds a rather sharp premium of around 35% to total food costs.

Uber has been dominating the ride-sharing market thanks to its timely expansion into food delivery, which helped the firm stay afloat during the pandemic when ridership collapsed as people stayed inside amid lockdowns.

Uber, however, could face increased competition from smaller Lyft, which has struggled to keep pace with the ride-sharing juggernaut in recent years.

Story continues

Lyft’s new CEO David Risher told Yahoo Finance Live that his company is angling to reclaim lost market share from Uber, and has said that he wants the ride-sharing firm to compete better with Uber on pricing.

“I am kind of okay with you calling it ‘The battle is back,’” Risher said. “We are ready to fight, and hopefully do well.”

By Daniel Howley, tech editor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him @DanielHowley

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