Sustained Gross Bookings Momentum Benefits Uber: What Lies Ahead?

Uber Technologies UBER, the San Francisco-based ride-hailing giant, continues to benefit from strong growth in gross bookings, driven by steady demand across its platform. The company has been recording solid double-digit growth in gross bookings across both its mobility and delivery businesses.Despite the crisis in the Middle East, UBER’s Mobility business saw impressive demand, with segmental revenues increasing 5% year over year on a reported basis and 1% on a constant currency basis to $8.2 billion.Gross bookings from the unit were highly impressive, aiding the first-quarter results. Gross bookings from the Mobility segment in the March quarter increased 20% year over year on a constant-currency basis to $26.4 billion.Uber’s Delivery business also performed well in the quarter, with segmental revenues growing 23% year over year on a constant-currency basis. Gross bookings from the Delivery segment in the first quarter rose 23% year over year on a constant-currency basis to $26 billion. Total gross bookings jumped 25% to $53.7 billion, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $52.9 billion.The gross bookings forecast for the second quarter of 2026 was very impressive, highlighting the bullishness surrounding the key metric. Despite the ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the resultant fuel price spike, gross bookings are projected in the range of $56.25-$57.75 billion, highlighting growth of 18% to 22% year over year on a constant-currency basis. The outlook assumes a roughly 2 percentage-point currency tailwind to total reported year-over-year growth.Continued expansion in gross bookings strengthens Uber’s revenue base, improves operating leverage across its platform and deepens network effects among riders, drivers and merchants. This momentum not only supports revenue growth but also enhances the company’s long-term profitability potential by enabling fixed costs to be distributed more efficiently across a larger transaction base.Comparable Metrics of Other Ride-Hailing EntitiesGross bookings are strong at rival Lyft LYFT as well, mainly owing to the growing active rider base, expansion into new markets and the success of its customer-friendly "Price Lock" feature. In the March quarter, gross bookings increased 19% year over year to $4.9 billion at Lyft. This was the 20th consecutive quarter where Lyft demonstrated double-digit year-on-year growth in the key metric, demonstrating the resilience and momentum of its customer-friendly strategy. Active Riders increased 17% year over year to 28.3 million.For the second quarter of 2026, Lyft anticipates gross bookings to grow 18-21% year over year, reaching $5.3-$5.43 billion.Singapore-based Grab GRAB is benefiting from strong growth in its On-Demand Gross Merchandise Value (“GMV”). On-Demand GMV refers to the sum of GMV of the mobility and deliveries segments. In the first quarter of 2026, On-Demand GMV increased 21% year over year (on a constant currency basis) at Grab. Grab expects 2026 revenues between $4.04 billion and $4.1 billion, indicating 20-22% year-over-year growth.UBER’s Share Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of UBER have declined in double digits over the past six months. Courtesy of the downbeat performance, UBER’s shares have underperformed the Zacks Internet-Services industry over the same time frame.6- Month Price ComparisonImage Source: Zacks Investment ResearchFrom a valuation standpoint, UBER trades at a 12-month forward price-to-sales of 2.44X. UBER is inexpensive compared with its industry.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchSee how the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Uber’s earnings has been revised over the past 90 days.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchUBER's Zacks RankUBER currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.  7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 DaysJust released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers "Most Likely for Early Price Pops."Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +23.9% per year. So be sure to give these hand picked 7 your immediate attention. See them now >>This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks