Uber reports revenue growth, cites resilience of core business amid omicron surge

• Uber reported fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday.
• Despite the omicron coronavirus surge, the company surpassed analyst estimates on revenue for the quarter and is recovering.

The company announced its fourth-quarter earnings after the market closed on Wednesday. Despite the challenges posed by the omicron coronavirus surge, the company exceeded analyst expectations for revenue in the quarter and expressed optimism about its recovery.

In after-hours trading, the company's stock experienced a rise of over 6%.

Here are the key numbers:

• Earnings per share: 44 cents
• According to a Refinitiv survey of analysts, the revenue was $5.78 billion instead of $5.34 billion.

Uber's EPS of 44 cents includes a $1.4 billion net benefit, pretax, related to its equity investments. Excluding this gain, Uber posted a loss of 26 cents per share, adjusted, beating Wall Street expectations of a 35 cent loss per share.

The company's adjusted EBITDA increased by $540 million compared to the previous year, reaching $86 million.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, Uber's largest business segments were reported.

• Mobility (gross bookings): $11.3 billion, up 67% year-over-year
• Delivery (gross bookings): $13.4 billion, up 34% year-over-year

The company's delivery segment, including its Uber Eats business, has remained strong as food delivery becomes a regular part of life. In a recent update to shareholders, the company announced that its number of delivery merchants grew to over 825,000. Additionally, delivery revenue of $2.42 billion exceeded the $2.28 billion generated by its core ride-hailing business. Furthermore, freight revenue increased by 245% year-over-year to $1.08 billion.

The omicron coronavirus variant negatively impacted Uber's business, but recovery is happening rapidly.

In late December, the Omicron variant affected our business, but now Gross Bookings have increased by 25% month-on-month in the most recent week, indicating that Mobility is starting to recover, as stated by Khosrowshahi.

Despite the pandemic surge, the company has managed to maintain a robust driver supply, resulting in shorter wait times and fewer surge pricing instances, as stated by Khosrowshahi during the earnings call.

During the quarter, Uber recorded 1.77 billion trips on its platform, representing an 8% increase from the previous quarter and a 23% rise from 2020. Additionally, the company reported 118 million monthly active platform consumers, up 8% in the quarter. Uber's drivers and couriers earned a combined $9.5 billion during the quarter.

Khosrowshahi stated that the company is striving to increase the number of drivers who operate across its entire platform, rather than just focusing on Eats or rides.

Uber's mobility gross bookings from airports increased by 24% in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter, and by nearly 200% from the same period a year ago.

Uber expects to generate gross bookings of $25 billion to $26 billion and anticipates an adjusted EBITDA of $100 million to $130 million in its first quarter of 2022.

During the company's call, executives briefly discussed the expanding field of ultrafast delivery. Venture capitalists have invested heavily in companies that guarantee customers their orders will be delivered in extremely short time frames, such as 10 to 15 minutes. Uber CFO Nelson Chai stated that the company is conducting some testing but is primarily concentrating on forming partnerships.

Uber's largest American rival reported its fourth-quarter financials on Tuesday, revealing that it had fewer active riders than in the previous quarter. Despite this, the company beat estimates on adjusted earnings per share and revenue. However, the company also warned that the omicron variant was negatively impacting its first-quarter results.