Uber share price surged as spike in trips and bookings boosts financials

Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) shares traded up close to 11% on Tuesday, driven by positive revenue and profits for its second quarter.

The gig-app firm generated $10.70 billion of revenue in the quarter, up 16% year-over-year, and better than Wall Street’s consensus forecast of $10.57 billion.

The Delivery segment, which includes Uber Eats, saw gross bookings up 16% to $18.1 billion, whilst the Mobility segment, or ride-sharing, brought in $20.6 billion of gross bookings which was a 23% improvement from last year.

Overall, group gross bookings were up 19% at $40 billion.

Trip numbers meanwhile increased 21% compared to the same period last year, to 2.8 billion – which Uber highlighted was approximately the same as 30 million trips per day.

Net income meanwhile more than doubled to $1.02 billion compared to $394 billion a year ago.

Earnings (adjusted EBITDA) was reported at $1.57 billion, equating to 47 cents on a per share basis which was easily ahead of analyst estimates of 31 cents.

Uber generated some $1.7 billion of free cash flow in the period, taking its cash pile to some $6.3 billion.

“Uber’s growth engine continues to hum, delivering our sixth consecutive quarter of trip growth above 20 percent, alongside record profitability,” chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement.

In terms of outlook, Uber now projects third-quarter 2024 gross bookings to be between $40.25 billion and $41.75 billion – ahead of the prior Wall Street mid-point consensus forecast of $41.18 billion.

Uber shares closed Tuesday’s regular trading 10.93% higher at $64.87, but eased somewhat in the ‘afterhours’ to $64.30.