Uber drops after its bookings results and forecast fail to impress

• Uber’s stock fell Thursday after the ride-share company reported mixed third-quarter results.
• Gross bookings, or the dollar value of rides and deliveries, came in slightly below expectations.
• Uber is “pretty optimistic” about key US market going forward, CEO says.

Uber took a hit Thursday after the ride-hailing and delivery company reported mixed third-quarter results.

The company reported gross bookings of $41 billion in the quarter, up 16% from the same period last year. That figure, which represents the dollar value of rides and deliveries, came in slightly below Bloomberg analyst expectations of $41.3 billion.

The near miss, coupled with a slightly muted forecast for this current quarter, sent shares down more than 10%.

“It’s really tough to gauge market expectations,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told CNBC following the news. “We’re very excited about the delivery of the results this quarter and incredibly optimistic about where we’re going from here.”

The $43 billion mid-point of Uber’s gross bookings forecast range for the fourth quarter was just below the estimate for $43.7 billion, according to Bloomberg. Trip activity for Q4 will be “sort of in line with what we saw in Q3 with a little bit less benefit from pricing,” CFO Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah said.

CEO Khosrowshahi said the company has seen US transaction growth slow a little as it passed on higher insurance costs to customers, but he expects those costs to increase at a more moderate rate going forward. While consumers are “a little more price sensitive in terms of whether they choose to go out or not” on the weekend, weekday demand is very strong, he said, as is Uber For Business.

Uber is “pretty optimistic” in general in terms of the US going forward, he said.