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Uber squeaks tiny adjusted profit in Q3 despite $2.4B net loss

Today after the bell American ride-hailing giant Uber reported its third-quarter financial results. Critically, the long-unprofitable company managed to squeak $8 million worth of adjusted EBITDA — a very modified profit metric — while still posting net losses of more than $2 billion.

The adjusted-profit result comes days after Lyft, Uber’s domestic rival, also recently managed the financial feat. In the third quarter, Uber’s gross bookings (or the value of all goods and services that flowed through its platform) totaled $23.1 billion, up 57% on a year-over-year basis. That figure translated to revenues of $4.8 billion, up 72% compared to the year-ago quarter. From that revenue figure Uber turned in a net loss of $2.4 billion, a figure inclusive of “a $2.0 billion net headwind” from the company revaluing its equity holdings in other companies. The company’s unadjusted per-share net losses came to $1.28, or a bit more than double the $0.62 it lost on a per-share basis in the year-ago third-quarter. Analysts had expected the ride-hailing company to report a $0.33 per-share loss against revenues of $4.42 billion. Shares of the company are off around 5% in after-hours trading. Before we get into segment performance, Uber indicated that it expects gross bookings of between $25 billion and $26 billion in the fourth quarter, leading to adjusted EBITDA of $25 to $75 million. Normally we’d mock a company of Uber’s scale and age for still forecasting with kids-table metrics like adjusted EBITDA instead of grown-up stats like GAAP net income. But as Uber has long promised investors that it would claw its way to the modified profit threshold this year, the guidance is worth noting.

Segment performance

Thinking broadly, Uber’s food delivery business drives far more of its total gross bookings than its ride-hailing business these days. In fact, it may be time to consider Uber more a food-delivery company than a taxi app. Regardless, here’s the company’s segment breakdown in terms of gross spend: