Uber beats estimates and the stock is up
Uber reported fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday that beat analysts’ estimates. Shares were up about 2.5%.
Here’s how the company did:
- Earnings per share: 29 cents vs. 18 cent loss expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
- Revenue: $8.6 billion vs. $8.49 billion expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
Revenue for the quarter was up 49% year over year. Uber noted that net income for the quarter was $595 million, of which $756 million was a net benefit due to unrealized gains on equity investments.
In a prepared statement, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber ended 2022 with its “strongest quarter ever,” capping off its “strongest year.” He said the pandemic’s impact on the company’s mobility business is “now well and truly behind us,” and that active drivers hit an all-time high during the quarter. He noted that the company also achieved a new milestone and hit 2 billion trips in a single quarter for the first time, averaging around 1 million trips per hour.
“Importantly, we achieved these results while also maintaining or improving our competitive position across our key markets,” he said in the statement.
The company reported adjusted EBITDA of $665 million, more than the $620 million expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount. Gross bookings for the quarter came in at $30.7 billion, up 19% year over year.
For the first quarter of 2023, Uber said it expects gross bookings to grow between 20% and 24% year over year on a constant currency basis, and an adjusted EBITDA of $660 million to $700 million.
Here’s how Uber’s largest business segments performed in the quarter:
Mobility (gross bookings): $14.9 billion vs. 14.8 billion expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount
Delivery (gross bookings): $14.3 billion vs. $14.3 billion expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount.
Uber relied heavily on growth in its Eats delivery business during the Covid pandemic, but its mobility segment surpassed Eats revenue in its first, second, and third quarters of 2022 as riders began to take more trips. That trend continued during the fourth quarter, as the company’s mobility segment reported $4.1 billion in revenue while delivery reported $2.9 billion.
Uber’s freight business booked $1.5 billion in sales for the quarter.
The number of monthly active platform consumers climbed to 131 million in the fourth quarter, up 11% year over year. There were 2.1 billion trips completed on the platform during the period, up 19% year over year.
Khosrowshahi told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Wednesday that Uber is not seeing any signs of consumer spend weakness. He said the company may be benefitting from a shift from retail to services spending following the pandemic.
“We have looked and looked,” he said. “We’re not seeing any signs of consumer weakness at this point.”
However, Khosrowshahi said about 70% of drivers are saying that inflation is a factor in their decision to come onto Uber’s platform.
“We may be benefiting from that trend, we’ll see where it takes us,” he said.
Uber will hold its quarterly call with investors at 8:00 a.m. ET Wednesday.
A Waymo autonomous self-driving Jaguar electric vehicle sits parked at an EVgo charging station in Los Angeles, California, on May 15, 2024.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
Waymo said it will begin testing in Philadelphia, with a limited fleet of vehicles and human safety drivers behind the wheel.
“This city is a National Treasure,” Waymo wrote in a post on X on Monday. “It’s a city of love, where eagles fly with a gritty spirit and cheese that spreads and cheese that steaks. Our road trip continues to Philly next.”
The Alphabet-owned company confirmed to CNBC that it will be testing in Pennsylvania’s largest city through the fall, adding that the initial fleet of cars will be manually driven through the more complex parts of Philadelphia, including downtown and on freeways.
“Folks will see our vehicles driving at all hours throughout various neighborhoods, from North Central to Eastwick, and from University City to as far east as the Delaware River,” a Waymo spokesperson said.
With its so-called road trips, Waymo seeks to collect mapping data and evaluate how its autonomous technology, Waymo Driver, performs in new environments, handling traffic patterns and local infrastructure. Road trips are often used a way for the company to gauge whether it can potentially offer a paid ride share service in a particular location.
The expanded testing, which will go through the fall, comes as Waymo aims for a broader rollout. Last month, the company announced plans to drive vehicles manually in New York for testing, marking the first step toward potentially cracking the largest U.S. city. Waymo applied for a permit with the New York City Department of Transportation to operate autonomously with a trained specialist behind the wheel in Manhattan. State law currently doesn’t allow for such driverless operations.
Waymo One provides more than 250,000 paid trips each week across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas, and is preparing to bring fully autonomous rides to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C., in 2026.
Alphabet has been under pressure to monetize artificial intelligence products as it bolsters spending on infrastructure. Alphabet’s “Other Bets” segment, which includes Waymo, brought in revenue of $1.65 billion in 2024, up from $1.53 billion in 2023. However, the segment lost $4.44 billion last year, compared to a loss of $4.09 billion the previous year.
Technology
Trump advisor Navarro rips Apple’s Tim Cook for not moving production out of China fast enough
White House trade advisor Peter Navarro chastised Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday over the company’s response to pressure from the Trump administration to make more of its products outside of China.
“Going back to the first Trump term, Tim Cook has continually asked for more time in order to move his factories out of China,” Navarro said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “I mean it’s the longest-running soap opera in Silicon Valley.”
CNBC has reached out to Apple for comment on Navarro’s criticism.
President Donald Trump has in recent months ramped up demands for Apple to move production of its iconic iPhone to the U.S. from overseas. Apple’s flagship phone is produced primarily in China, but the company has increasingly boosted production in India, partly to avoid the higher cost of Trump’s tariffs.
Trump in May warned Apple would have to pay a tariff of 25% or more for iPhones made outside the U.S. In separate remarks, Trump said he told Cook, “I don’t want you building in India.”
Analysts and supply chain experts have argued it would be impossible for Apple to completely move iPhone production to the U.S. By some estimates, a U.S.-made iPhone could cost as much as $3,500.
Navarro said Cook isn’t shifting production out of China quickly enough.
“With all these new advanced manufacturing techniques and the way things are moving with AI and things like that, it’s inconceivable to me that Tim Cook could not produce his iPhones elsewhere around the world and in this country,” Navarro said.
Apple currently makes very few products in the U.S. During Trump’s first term, Apple extended its commitment to assemble the $3,000 Mac Pro in Texas.
In February, Apple said it would spend $500 billion within the U.S., including on assembling some AI servers.
WATCH: Apple’s $500 billion investment: For AI servers not manufacturing iPhones
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