UBER - Poor Q3 Results From Lyft and Uber Rekindle Questions About Ride-Hailing's Future
The good news is, both Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) and Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) managed to grow their revenue last quarter. The bad news is, both ride-hailing companies remain deep in the red. Their GAAP losses are still mostly growing, in fact, rather than shrinking as each company gets bigger.
Were we still in the throes of the pandemic or if these organizations were still start-ups, investors might be able to look past the ongoing losses. With Uber now being 11 years old and Lyft being around for the past 10 years, it's not unfair to ask if actual profits are even possible in this industry. The losses remain very, very large, after all.
For the quarter ending in September, Lyft turned a little more than $1 billion in revenue into an operating loss of $290 million . The top line was up 21%, yet the loss grew by 41% year over year. And on a GAAP basis, Lyft lost $422 million, reflecting a $136 million impairment charge. This loss also factors in stock-based compensation of $224 million, although this form (and degree) of employee pay is not unusual for the company.
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Poor Q3 Results From Lyft and Uber Rekindle Questions About Ride-Hailing's Future