Uber Is Winning the Growth Race, But the Road Ahead Is Getting More Expensive

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Shares of Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE: UBER) rose on Wednesday after the company reported its fourth-quarter results.

Here are the key analyst insights:

  • Citizens JMP Securities analyst Andrew Boone upgraded the rating from Market Perform to Market Outperform, while establishing a price target of $100.
  • Wedbush analyst Scott Devitt maintained a Neutral rating, while cutting the price target from $78 to $75.
Citizens JMP Securities: Uber Technologies reported gross bookings of $54.1 billion, up 22% year-on-year and around 2% above consensus, Boone said in the upgrade note. Although the first-quarter bookings guidance of $52 billion-$53.5 billion was ahead of the consensus of $51.4 billion, the EBITDA guidance of $2.37-$2.47 billion bracketed consensus, as the company "appears to be making slightly more investments across its business," he added.

Concerns remain around competition, especially from Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), the analyst stated. "However, we believe that Uber is doing an exceptional job on building out a strong network of AV (autonomous vehicle) partners that it can aggregate in the medium term (2-4 years)," he further wrote.

Wedbush: Investors seem to be underestimating the pace at which AV adoption is changing, while overestimating Uber Technologies' position when the shift happens, Devitt said. Contrary to the company's suggestion, AV is unlikely to be a fragmented industry, he added.

"30% of Uber's U.S. mobility bookings and 25% of profits are generated within the platform's top 20 cities, and are most at risk to AV displacement," the analyst wrote. Waymo, and possibly Tesla, will likely be in several of the top 20 US markets by the end of this year, he further stated.

UBER Price Action: Uber Technologies shares were up 0.53% at $74.31 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.