: Uber stock jumps as it keeps getting bigger, says bookings almost back to pre-pandemic levels

The ride-hailing giant reported gross bookings of rides of $11.3 billion, up 67% year over year, and a 34% increase in gross bookings of deliveries, to $13.4 billion. Total gross bookings were $25.9 billion, beating analysts’ expectation of $25.6 billion, though the company’s 1.77 billion trips fell short of analysts’ estimates of 1.93 billion. Total revenue grew 83% to $5.78 billion from $3.17 billion in the year-ago quarter, beating analysts’ expectations of $5.35 billion.

“In Q4, more consumers were active on our platform than ever before,” said Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi in a statement.

The company reported fourth-quarter profit of $892 million, or 44 cents a share, compared with a loss of $968 million, or 54 cents a share, in the year-ago period. The net income includes a $1.4 billion pre-tax net benefit related to Uber’s investments in Southeast Asia-based delivery company Grab and Aurora Technologies, the autonomous vehicle company that absorbed Uber’s self-driving unit. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected the company to post an adjusted loss of 30 cents a share.

Adjusted Ebitda for the quarter was $86 million, beating analysts’ expectation of $67 million. That compared with negative adjusted Ebitda of $454 million in the year-ago quarter.

For the full year, Uber reported a loss of $496 million, or 29 cents a share, on revenue of $17.45 billion. Analysts had expected a loss of $1.04 a share on $17.13 billion in revenue. The company’s gross bookings totaled $90.42 billion, surpassing expectations of $90.19 billion.

The company expects first-quarter gross bookings of $25 billion to $26 billion, and adjusted Ebitda of $100 million to $130 million.

Shares of Uber have fallen more than 8.5% so far this year, while the S&P 500 Index
SPX,
+1.45%
is down about 5% year to date.