When Will Uber Turn a Profit If It’s Losing Nearly $10K Every Minute?

Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER | UBER Price Prediction) reported third-quarter financial results after markets closed Monday. Just looking at the numbers for the quarter, investors would think that Uber is headed in the right direction, but comments from management suggest that the drive to profitability may be delayed.

24/7 Wall St. has included some brief highlights from the earnings report, as well as what analysts are saying after the fact.

In the earnings conference call, CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi promised investors that the company would turn a full-year profit by 2021, but this did not seem enough to offset investor sentiment. It’s worth pointing out here that rival ride-sharing firm Lyft posted earnings results last week signaling that it would turn a profit by the end of 2021. Either way, Uber has its work cut out for it, assuming everything goes according to plan.

Another interesting statistic for this quarter was that Uber posted a $1.16 billion loss for the quarter. Some analysts have even joked that “Who would have thought that delivering Taco Bell in a Suburban would be profitable?” But on a serious note, the breakdown for this loss across a quarter is impressive. Accordingly, Uber is losing nearly $13 million each day, about $540,000 each hour, or just shy of $9,000 every minute.

In terms of the financials, the ride-sharing firm posted a net loss of $0.68 per share and $3.81 billion in revenue. That compared with consensus estimates calling for a per-share net loss of $0.81 and revenue of $3.69 billion. The same period of last year reportedly had a net loss of $2.21 per share and $2.94 billion in revenue.

During the latest quarter, gross bookings increased 29% year over year to $16.5 billion, up 32% in constant currency. Monthly active platform consumers increased by 26% to 103 million, up from 82 million.

Also, the total number of trips increased 31% year over year to 1.77 billion, compared with the same period last year, when Uber reported 1.35 billion trips. Use of Uber is popular with tourists for convenience purposes — here are other crucial tips for overseas travelers.

Adjusted net revenue growth accelerated to 33% year over year, or 35% on a constant currency basis, as both Rides and Eats adjusted net revenue take-rates improved quarter over quarter to 22.8% and 10.7%, respectively.

The company said that it is improving its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance by $250 million, now expecting a loss in the range of $2.8 billion to $2.9 billion. Consensus estimates call for a net loss of $0.75 per share and $4.03 billion in revenue for the current quarter.

Here’s what a few analysts had to say after the fact:

• Morgan Stanley reiterated an Overweight rating and raised its price target to $55 from $53.
• Barclays reiterated it as Overweight and cut its target price from $50 to $40.
• Wedbush reiterated its Outperform rating and cut its price target from $58 to $45.
• RBC Capital reiterated an Outperform rating and raised its target price to $64 from $62.

Shares of Uber have traded in a post-IPO range of $28.31 to $47.08. The consensus price target is $48.73.