What to Look For From UBER
Key points to remember
- Analysts estimate EPS at -$0.27 vs. $0.58 in Q2 2021.
- Revenues are expected to continue growing at a steady pace from the early lows of the pandemic.
- Analysts expect quarterly gross bookings to increase in the second quarter.
Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) has seen a dramatic increase in revenue over the past year as its ride-sharing business recovers from a sharp decline during the pandemic. To accelerate this recovery, Uber’s ride-sharing and food delivery services are also expanding into local commercial delivery. Despite this progress, Uber faces major challenges, with analysts predicting Uber will post its fourth consecutive annual loss in fiscal 2022.
Investors will be watching closely for the impact of these trends on Uber when the company releases premarket results on August 2, 2022 for the second quarter of fiscal 2022. For the second quarter of fiscal 2022, analysts believe that ‘Uber will announce its third loss per share from the past. four quarters, although the loss will be lower than in Q1. Despite this, analysts expect revenue to grow at a healthy pace for the fifth consecutive quarter.
Investors will also focus on Uber’s gross bookings, a key metric indicating the total dollar amount generated by Uber’s combined ridesharing, delivery and freight forwarding business. Analysts expect gross bookings to grow in the second quarter, but at a slower pace than in recent quarters.
Uber’s stock has significantly underperformed the broader market over the past year. The stock briefly outperformed in the fall of 2021. But since then the stock has embarked on a steep decline marked by brief rallies and followed by steeper declines. Uber shares continued their descent just before and after the company’s earnings reports in May. Over the past 12 months, Uber has posted a total return of -47.5% compared to the -6.5% return of the S&P 500 as of July 31, 2022.
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Uber Earnings History
Uber’s earnings-per-share (EPS) record has been marred by a long string of losses. The ride-hailing company has posted losses per share in 13 of the past 15 quarters. Annual losses per share fell from -$6.81 in fiscal year 2019, just before the pandemic, to -$3.86 in fiscal year 2020 and to -$0.26 in the second quarter. 2021. For the second quarter of fiscal 2022, analysts believe Uber will post a loss per share against positive earnings. in the same quarter a year earlier. For the full fiscal year 2022, analysts expect Uber’s loss per share to increase significantly from fiscal year 2021.
Uber’s revenue has been hit hard during the pandemic as ride-sharing plunged. Revenue fell 14.3% in fiscal 2020. The company experienced an equally dramatic rebound in fiscal 2021, with revenue increasing 56.7%. In the first quarter of fiscal 2022, Uber more than doubled its revenue year-over-year (YOY). Analysts expect Uber’s revenue to grow 87.2% year-over-year in the second quarter of fiscal 2022.
| Estimate for the second quarter of fiscal 2022 | Q2 2021 | Q2 2020 | |
| Earnings per share ($) | -0.27 | 0.58 | -1.02 |
| Revenue ($B) | 7.4 | 3.9 | 1.9 |
| Gross bookings ($B) | 28.9 | 21.9 | 10.2 |
The key metric
As mentioned above, investors will also focus on Uber’s gross bookings. This key metric is defined as the total dollar value, including applicable taxes, tolls, and fees, generated by Uber’s ridesharing, grocery and food delivery, and freight shipping business. Gross bookings provide an overview of the scale of all Uber services. Gross bookings are positively correlated to Uber’s revenue, the portion of gross bookings the company claims as its own.
Uber had two years of strong growth in gross bookings in fiscal years 2018 and 2019, then fell 10.9% in fiscal year 2020 amid the pandemic. Since then, gross bookings have continued to improve, growing 56.2% year-over-year in fiscal year 2021. Uber is responding to high gas prices and low driver availability by offering incentives to its drivers to maintain service, among other measures. For the second quarter of fiscal 2022, analysts expect gross bookings to grow 32.2%. For the year 2022, they estimate that gross bookings will increase by 30.1%.
