Shares of Uber Technologies (UBER -0.38%) initially fell almost 5% early Wednesday, then recovered to close up around 0.6% after the ride-hailing company announced better-than-expected fourth-quarter 2023 results.
On Uber's first profitable year as a public company
Uber's fourth-quarter 2023 revenue grew 15% year over year (13% at constant currency) to $9.936 billion, translating to net income of just over $1.429 billion, or $0.66 per diluted share (up from $0.29 per share in last year's fourth quarter). Analysts, on average, were only expecting earnings of $0.17 per share on revenue of $9.09 billion.
Meanwhile, gross bookings -- a key measure to help estimate future sales -- grew 22% year over year to $37.6 billion during the quarter. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) nearly doubled year over year to $1.283 billion.
This also brought Uber's full-year 2023 profit to $1.887 billion, swinging from a loss of $9.1 billion in 2022 and marking its first full-year profit since going public in 2019.
To be fair -- and this could explain today's muted reaction from the market -- the bulk of Uber's bottom-line beat was attributable to a roughly $1 billion benefit from the revaluation of its equity investments. But Uber would have been profitable regardless thanks to its focus on generating operating leverage from its core business.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called 2023 "an inflection point for Uber, proving that we can continue to generate strong, profitable growth at scale."
What's next for Uber investors?
Uber didn't provide specific forward revenue or net income guidance. But the company did predict gross bookings in the first quarter of 2024 will arrive in the range of $37 billion to $38.5 billion, with adjusted EBITDA expanding to a range of $1.26 billion to $1.34 billion.
In the end, with shares already having doubled over the past year and 21% so far in 2024 leading into this report, perhaps some traders opportunistically took some of their gains off the table this morning. But as Uber continues to drive profitable growth at scale, I won't be the least bit surprised if it extends its gains.
