Uber earnings preview: Brace for more quarterly losses

Uber Technologies Inc. took a significant detour on the road to profitability three months ago with a jaw-dropping $5.24 billion quarterly loss, deepening its losses to more than $6 billion this fiscal year.

So when the ride-hailing service reports third-quarter financial results on Monday, investors and analysts are bracing for much of the same.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney expects an Ebitda loss of $802 million, or 89 cents a share, on revenue of $3.7 billion, up 26% from the same quarter a year ago. In a Nov. 1 note, he maintained an outperform rating on the stock with a price target of $62. Uber shares closed at $31.37 on Friday.

Raymond James analyst Justin Patterson does foresee narrowing losses for the third quarter ($783 million), fourth quarter ($639 million), and into 2020 and 2021 as Uber trims expenses and a price war with rival services cool. Patterson maintained an Outperform rating and price target of $54 in an Oct. 31 note.

Meanwhile, Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives has long-term hopes over Uber’s “ability to morph its unrivaled ridesharing platform into a broader consumer engine with Uber Eats, Uber Freight, and autonomous initiatives to hit its full monetization potential at scale.” In a Nov. 1 note, Ives said he is sticking with an Outperform rating and price target of $58.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet estimate a loss of 70 cents a share on revenue of $3.63 billion.

To be fair, Uber’s












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 second-quarter loss in August, equal to $4.72 a share, included $3.9 billion in stock-based compensation expenses related to its May IPO. (The company’s official lockup period begins Nov. 6, when more than $20 billion of its stock hits the market.) But what was troubling to investors was the company’s slowest revenue growth rate yet — 14% to $3.17 billion.

Read more: Uber lost more than $5 billion in three months, and the stock is getting punished

The news was not encouraging on Wednesday, when Lyft Inc.












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 reported a third-quarter net loss of $463.5 million, or $1.57 a share, versus losses of $249.2 million, or $11.58 a share, in the year-ago quarter. The red ink included $246.1 million of stock-based compensation and $86.6 million related to changes in insurance-related liabilities.

Read more: Lyft stock falls after ride-hail giant bolsters outlook

Uber’s stock is down 33% from its May 10 debut, while the S&P 500 index












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 has gained 22%.