Uber lost more than $5B last quarter

Uber has disclosed earnings for the second time since becoming a public company, reporting revenues of $3.16 billion on losses of $5.2 billion for the second quarter of 2019.

Uber (NYSE: UBER) closed up more than 9% Thursday at $42.98 per share, just below its $45 IPO price, but took a nose dive of more than 11% on the news.

$5.2 billion in net losses represents the company’s largest-ever quarterly loss. Revenue, for its part, is up only 14% year-over-year, igniting concerns over slower-than-ever growth. The company says a majority of 2Q losses are a result of stock-based compensation expenses for employees following its May IPO. Stock compensation aside, Uber still lost $1.3 billion, up 30% from Q1.

Analysts had expected losses per share of $3.12 versus Uber’s $4.72. As for revenue, analysts, per CNBC, had expected $3.36 billion, or an additional $200 million.

“While we will continue to invest aggressively in growth, we also want it to be healthy growth, and this quarter we made good progress in that direction,” Uber chief financial officer Nelson Chai said in the earnings document.

Uber’s had a rough few months since making the leap to the public markets after its overly ambitious private market valuation failed to sway Wall Street. 

Uber, in an attempt to slash costs and make operations more efficient, recently announced it was laying off one-third of its 1,200-person marketing department.

News of Uber’s piling losses comes one day after its key U.S. competitor, Lyft, beat on revenue with $867 million for the quarter on net losses of $644 million. That’s up from $505 million in revenue in Q2 2018 on losses of $179 million. Lyft closed up 3% Thursday at $62 per share. The company’s stock sunk in after-hours trading Wednesday, however, after it announced the IPO lockup period would end more than a month early.

As for Uber Eats, the company says its “monthly active platform consumers,” or MAPCs, grew 140% YoY. The company now works with 320,000 restaurants. As for revenue, that’s grown 72%, to $595 million.

You can view the full Uber earnings report here.