Uber stock pops on impressive revenue growth, consumer resilience

Yahoo Finance’s Allie Garfinkle joins the Live show to discuss the rise in stock for Uber following fourth-quarter earnings.

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: All right, let's talk about another mover this morning. That is Uber riding high following an earnings beat. Revenue was up 49% year over year as well. The ride hailing giant said it isn't seeing any signs of consumer weakness. For more on the numbers, let's bring in Yahoo Finance's Allie Garfinkle. No consumer weakness-- how about that?

ALLIE GARFINKLE: Yeah, it was quite a surprise. So Uber revenue, Julie, came in at 8.61 billion against estimates of 8.47 billion. Now, this is a beat, but again, it's the growth it represents. 49% year over year is pretty impressive. And I think it's a reminder-- we need to remind ourselves that this is becoming a regular thing for Uber. Look back to Q3, for example. Revenue jumped 72% year over year.

So what's happening here, right? In part, this is a pandemic recovery story. Even though the macro has been rough on consumers as rates are high, inflation was long, incredibly high, people are still going out now that they can. Consumers have proven to be pretty resilient this quarter. We saw it, for example, in the context of e-commerce growth. But it's nowhere more clear how resilient consumers can be than in the case of Uber. Post-pandemic folks are out. They're returning to traveling to the office, and Uber is reaping the benefits.

I'll leave you this quote from Uber CEO from a statement this morning that I thought was really interesting. We also reached a new milestone crossing 2 billion trips in a single quarter for the first time, an average of one-- nearly 1 million trips per hour. That's a lot of Ubers.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, Allie, you know what was also interesting, too, just looking at trying to decode some of the stock action here in the premarket, so gross bookings up 19% year over year. Very complicated earnings release. We're trying to make it simple. Gross bookings up 19% year over year. Their guidance for the first quarter is calling for an acceleration to 20% to 24% year over year. So that is pretty good.

And also, this is a company that we've been very critical here at Yahoo Finance, but they delivered last year on their targets to finally deliver adjusted operating profits. That clocked in for last year at $1.7 billion. So there's a lot to like here. And then you have to take a step back. What does this quarter mean for Lyft?

ALLIE GARFINKLE: Right, that's because that's the question-- that's one of the big outstanding questions. And I think you're right. These are complicated earnings, but they have delivered. And in this case, Lyft stock is up this morning. But I think there's still clearly pressure on Lyft because it's not just these beats out of Uber, right? There's the momentum. There's growth. Uber's leaner. There's what friend of the show, Dan Ives, this morning called a monster EBITDA beat.

So Lyft, on the other hand, they've been trying to get there. Most people I've talked to think that Uber is taking Lyft's market share. It is eating their lunch. And Lyft has long been talked about as this little brother to Uber, right? And I think what I'm hearing is that they still have a lot to prove.

BRAD SMITH: All right, we're going to be tracking both of them very closely here on this report. Yahoo Finance's own Allie Garfinkle joining us to break down Uber this morning. Thanks so much, Allie.