Uber reports third-quarter results that beat Wall Street’s revenue expectations

Uber reported third-quarter results on Thursday that beat Wall Street’s expectations for revenue but missed on analysts’ projections for gross bookings.

Shares of the company closed down more than 9% on Thursday.

Here’s how the company did:

• Earnings per share: $1.20 vs. 41 cents expected by LSEG.
• Revenue: $11.19 billion vs. $10.98 billion expected by LSEG

Uber’s revenue grew 20% in its third quarter from $9.3 billion a year prior. The company reported $40.97 billion in gross bookings for the period, which is below the $41.25 billion expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount.

The company reported a net income of $2.6 billion, or $1.20 per share, up from $221 million, or 10 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Uber said its net income includes a $1.7 billion pre-tax benefit from unrealized gains related to the reevaluation of its equity investments.

Uber reported adjusted EBITDA of $1.69 billion, up 55% year over year and slightly above the $1.64 billion expected by analysts polled by StreetAccount.

“We are in the fortunate position of having strong performance in our core business, which allows us to make organic investments in new products and capabilities that will pay off for our platform over the long term,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Thursday in prepared remarks.

For its fourth quarter, Uber said it expects gross bookings between $42.75 billion and $44.25 billion, compared with StreetAccount estimates of $43.68 billion. Uber anticipates adjusted EBITDA of $1.78 billion to $1.88 billion, compared with the $1.83 billion expected by analysts.

There were 2.9 billion trips completed on the platform during the period, up 17% year over year. The number of Uber’s monthly active platform consumers reached 161 million in its third quarter, up 13% year over year from 142 million.

Following reports that Uber discussed a bid for travel booking company Expedia, Khosrowshahi told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Thursday that Uber’s M&A focus is on “smaller deals that are much more closer to home.”

“We’re not looking at this point to do big deals, transformational deals, one way or the other,” he said.

Here’s how Uber’s largest business segments performed:

Mobility (gross bookings): $21 billion, up 17% year over year

Delivery (gross bookings): $18.7 billion, up 16% year over year

Uber’s mobility segment reported $6.41 billion in revenue, up 26% from a year earlier. StreetAccount analysts were expecting $6.31 billion. The company’s delivery segment reported $3.47 billion in revenue, up 18% from the year prior. Analysts were expecting $3.43 billion, according to StreetAccount.

The company’s freight business reported $1.31 billion in revenue for the quarter, an increase of 2% year over year.