Investors didn't like Uber's mixed outlook for the quarter. Shares fell

Cab service Uber disappointed investors with its profit forecast for the current quarter, which was below Wall Street's expectations. The results for the last reporting period also turned out to be worse than analysts expected. Because of this, the company's securities fell sharply in price: at the moment their value fell by almost 7%. At the same time, there are positive aspects in the report: for example, a record number of users and a forecast for the gross value of bookings.

Despite signs of strong demand, Uber gave a mixed earnings outlook for the current quarter, Bloomberg writes. Adjusted EPS, a metric the company only began disclosing this year, is expected to be in the range of $0.65 to $0.72 per share. The consensus of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was $0.77.

In addition, the company reported a nearly 96% drop in net income in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, to $296 million, MarketWatch notes. But adjusted EPS rose 27% to $0.71. While the average analyst forecast for EPS, compiled by FactSet, suggested $0.79.

After the publication of Uber shares at the moment cheapened by 7%, - to $71.88, but then slowed down to 4%. The papers lost about a quarter of their value relative to the record at the close, set on October 6. They are getting cheaper amid growing concerns about growing competition from robotaxi services from Tesla and Waymo, owned by Alphabet, explains MarketWatch.

The cab service gave an optimistic outlook for gross bookings for the current quarter. The company expects the figure to be $52-53.5 billion, versus analysts' expectations of $51.39 billion, according to FactSet. Uber forecasts strong gross value growth in the U.S., Bloomberg notes. The figure includes rides, deliveries, driver and merchant revenue, but excludes tips.

In the fourth quarter, the gross value of bookings rose 22% to $54.1 billion, exceeding analysts' average estimates ($53.14 billion), Bloomberg writes. The company attributed this to the launch of new products, as well as the activity of paid subscribers of Uber One, which increased the number of transactions.

Revenue in the fourth quarter grew 20.1% year-on-year to $14.37 billion. Wall Street was expecting $14.32 billion, MarketWatch reports. The largest source of revenue Uber remains cab ordering services, but the fastest growing area of business was delivery: revenues from it added 30% and reached $4.89 billion.

The number of monthly active users on the platform rose 18.1% to a record 202 million. Analysts had expected 198.3 million, MarketWatch noted. The number of trips increased 22.3% to a record 3.75 billion, also above Wall Street forecasts.

Uber has appointed a new CFO: he became Balaji Krishnamurthy - vice president of strategic finance and investor relations. The top manager is characterized by "bullish" views on self-driving cars, notes Bloomberg. Uber has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the technology.

According to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber plans to offer robotaxi rides alongside rides with a driver in 15 cities by the end of this year. On Wednesday, Uber named several new cities not previously mentioned: Houston, Hong Kong, Madrid and Zurich.

Wedbush analysts said the quarter's results were strong, but the outlook for the first quarter is mixed: "We remain cautious in assessing the potential impact of robotaxis on current ride networks as the industry continues to change," they wrote (quoted by Bloomberg).

Zacks Investment Research equity strategist Andrew Rocco noted after the report was published that Uber was able to allay fears of disruptive competition from robotaxis, "At the moment, Uber is not suffering from competition from robotaxis, but rather is being used as a scaling platform by such manufacturers. If this trend continues, the stock will rise. But if there are signs of displacement, quotes could suffer."

Analysts are confidently advising to buy Uber shares: the securities have 44 Buy ratings and six Overweight ratings, MarketWatch shows. Another nine recommend Hold and one recommends Sell.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor