Uber's Fourth-Quarter Revenue Jumps

Uber Technologies Inc.’s UBER 4.83% revenue climbed 83% in the last quarter of 2021, helped by a recovery in its rides business and continued demand for food delivery despite restaurant reopenings.

The company posted revenue of $5.78 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, beating the average estimate of $5.35 billion from analysts polled by FactSet. Its rides bookings rose by 67% year-over-year while its food-delivery bookings jumped 34% over the same period. Uber ended the quarter with 118 million active customers, a record for the company.

Uber has posted rare profits on the back of its investments in other companies, though it is yet to turn a profit on the strength of its operations alone. The company posted a profit of $892 million in the fourth quarter, helped by its investments in Southeast Asia’s Grab Holdings Inc. GRAB 6.53% and Aurora Innovation Inc. AUR -0.34%

The quarter also marked the second time that Uber posted adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization since its inception over a decade ago. The company has pointed to this metric to signal that its operations are moving toward future profitability.

Uber’s adjusted Ebitda of $86 million beat analysts’ average estimate of $67 million. Uber Eats, its delivery unit, posted its first profit by this measure in the quarter.

Your average Uber or Lyft ride cost 50% more this summer than before the pandemic. But prices were inching up even before lockdowns began. Here’s what drove rideshare prices through the roof, and how the companies are working to bring them back down. Composite photo: David Fang/WSJ

Uber forecast gross bookings for the first quarter of 2022 to be broadly in line with analysts’ estimates, though it projected a lower-than-expected adjusted earnings range.

Riders are returning to Uber faster than drivers. The labor shortage pushed prices for Uber rides to all time-highs last year.

While Uber hasn’t publicly released data on prices, the company said Wednesday that estimated wait times for riders had reverted to pre-pandemic levels across the U.S. It added that so-called surge rides, or trips that become more expensive when drivers are in short supply, currently make up 20% of New York City trips. More than half of trips taken in New York City were surging around the same time last year.

The company’s full-year revenue in 2021 rose 57%. Uber trimmed its net loss to $496 million from a loss of $6.77 billion in 2020, helped by cost cuts and shedding money-losing businesses during the pandemic.

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Uber said it expects its gross bookings—the total value of bookings made on its platform—to reach as much as $26 billion in the first quarter of 2022. That compares with $19.5 billion in the year-earlier quarter. It said it expects adjusted earnings before tax, interest and other expenses between $100 million to $130 million for the same period, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $151 million.

Rival Lyft Inc.’s stock fell in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company forecast lower-than-expected revenue in the first quarter of 2022, saying it was accounting for uncertainty from the Omicron Covid-19 variant. Lyft’s fourth-quarter revenue grew 70% and it posted record revenue per active rider, even though its active riders marginally dipped over the quarter compared with the previous quarter. Lyft’s stock closed up nearly 6% Wednesday.

Write to Preetika Rana at [email protected]