Uber stock price sinks as Lyft rises: Why Wall Street is shifting gears on the ride-hailing giants

When it comes to the stocks of America’s two biggest ride-sharers, their current fortunes are polar opposites this morning. As of the time of this writing, Lyft shares are up nearly 5.5% in premarket trading to just over $17.50. Meanwhile, Uber shares are currently down over 6.5% to around $65.70.

What’s causing the difference in the share movements? Yesterday, Lyft reported its Q1 2024 results in which it forecasted higher gross bookings and core profit for the current quarter it’s now in. However, this morning Uber revealed its Q1 2024 results, and when forecasting for its current quarter, the company said it expects gross bookings to be below expectations.

In other words, for the immediate future, Lyft is projecting brighter skies while Uber’s forecast is gloomier—and investors are reacting in line with those forecasts.

Bright spots and dashed hopes

A Reuters notes, Uber said it expects its gross bookings revenue for the current Q2 quarter to come in at between $38.75 billion and $40.25 billion. But Wall Street had expected that projection to be around the higher end of the range—at about $40.04 billion.

Of course, there were some bright spots in Uber’s Q1 2024 earnings. The company posted an adjusted core profit of $1.38 billion, a rise of 82% from the quarter a year earlier. Gross bookings also grew 20% year-over-year.

In a press release, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, “Our results this quarter once again demonstrate our ability to deliver consistent, profitable growth at scale.” He also pointed out that driver earnings are also on the rise. “More than 7 million people now choose to earn flexibly on Uber every month, with driver earnings of $16.6 billion continuing to grow faster than our topline.”

However, if there’s one thing investors hate it’s when company forecasts come in below Wall Street expectations. Uber’s premarket fall this morning is a sign of that displeasure.

Interestingly, investors have seemed equally pleased with both companies over the last few months. Shares of Uber and Lyft are both up around 20% this year before today’s premarket change is taken into account.

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