Uber's business

Uber shares fell after the report, repeating the trajectory of its smaller rival Lyft. Despite the good quarterly results, investors saw warning signs for the profitability of Uber's business.

Uber Technologies (UBER) posted higher revenues and earnings per share than analysts on average expected. However, Uber shares fell as the company's quarterly profit is a one-off, the taxi segment suffered heavy losses and the number of customers is growing more slowly than Wall Street had expected.

Many investors and market pundits are simultaneously analysing the financial reports of Uber and its smaller rival Lyft (LYFT), which reported results a day earlier and whose shares also reacted by falling. Uber shares fell 4.7% in the post-market on Wednesday after the company released its second-quarter report. Uber shares have lost 18% since the start of 2021. Uber had a market capitalisation of almost $80.5bn at the close of trading on Wednesday.

Lyft shares fell as much as 10.56% on Wednesday after the company issued a report a day earlier. The stock has gained a paltry 0.8% since the start of the year. Lyft had a market capitalisation of $16.7 billion at the close of trading on Wednesday.

Investors saw both companies struggling with hiring and higher pay for drivers and the risks of a second hit to the business due to an increase in the incidence of the new COVID-19 Delta strain.

Uber's second quarter 2021 report

Uber Technologies unexpectedly made a total one-off profit of $1.1bn for the quarter, thanks to profits from its investment in Chinese company Didi (DIDI) and the sale of its autonomous driving subsidiary Aurora. As a result, Uber posted quarterly earnings per share of $0.58 versus a loss of $0.51 expected by analysts. This is the first profit in the company's history.

Total quarterly revenues rose 75% to $3.93 billion, beating wall Street analysts' average forecast of $3.75 billion.

Most of that revenue: $1.96 billion came from the delivery service, which includes food delivery service Uber Eats and delivery of other packages.

Revenue from the taxi service rose 106% from last year to $1.62bn.

Uber Freight revenue rose 65% to $348bn.