Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi speaks at a product launch event in San Francisco, California on September 26, 2019.
Philip Pacheco | AFP via Getty Images
Uber boosted its third-quarter financial outlook on Tuesday, with bookings and adjusted earnings now expected to be better than first reported.
Shares of the company were up more than 12% in the afternoon.
The ride-hailing company said in an SEC filing it now expects to report $22.8 billion to $23.2 billion in gross bookings for the current quarter, adjusted from the $22 billion to $24 billion it predicted on its second-quarter earnings call.
Gross bookings for the second quarter came in at $21.5 billion, with mobility accounting for $8.6 billion and food delivery accounting for $12.9 billion.
“They say that crisis breeds opportunity and that’s certainly been true of Uber during the last 18 months,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in the filing.
Uber also said it now expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to range from a loss of $25 million to a profit of $25 million. Uber previously said it expected its adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter to be better than a loss of $100 million.
Looking ahead, Uber reiterated that on an adjusted EBITDA basis, it should see a profit in the fourth quarter. However, it added that “significant forecasting uncertainty” remains a factor.
In the second quarter, Uber reported 1.51 billion trips on the platform, up 4% from the first quarter and 105% from the year-ago quarter. Uber said its drivers and couriers earned an aggregate $7.9 billion during the quarter.
Uber and other competitors have struggled with supply and demand imbalances because of the coronavirus pandemic, leading to surge pricing and increased wait times. Khosrowshahi said on a call with investors that prices and wait times aren’t meeting company targets.
“In Q2 we invested in recovery by investing in drivers and we made strong progress, with monthly active drivers and couriers in the U.S. increasing by nearly 420,000 from February to July,” Khosrowshahi said in a statement.
In an interview Tuesday with CNBC, Khosrowshahi said he expected pricing to ease up in the back half of this year.
— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Jessica Bursztynsky.
