Uber Revenue Beats Expectations and the Stock Is Up

• Uber reported first-quarter results Tuesday that beat analysts' expectations for revenue.
• Revenue for the quarter was up 29% year over year.
• In a prepared statement, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber is off to a "strong start" for the year.

Shares of Uber popped 7% Tuesday after the company reported first-quarter results that beat analysts' expectations for revenue.

Here's how the company did:

• Loss per share: 8 cent loss vs 9 cent loss expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
• Revenue: $8.82 billion vs. $8.72 billion expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.

Revenue for the quarter was up 29% from the same quarter last year.

Uber reported a net loss of $157 million, or 8 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $5.9 billion, or $3.03 per share, last year.

In a prepared statement, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber is off to a "strong start" for the year. He said the company's global scale also provides it with a "significant data advantage" over its competitors that will allow Uber to employ AI solutions on the consumer side and the earner side of its business.

Khosrowshahi said Uber is already using AI to predict "highly accurate" arrival times for rides and deliveries, and to expedite driver onboarding by processing documents more "reliably and cost-efficiently."

"We are still in the early stages of using large data models to power improved user experiences and efficiencies across our platform, with much more to come," he said in the remarks.

The company reported adjusted EBITDA of $761 million, more than the $687 million expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount. Gross bookings for the quarter came in at $31.4 billion, up 19% year over year.

For the second quarter of 2023, Uber said it expects to report gross bookings between $33 billion to $34 billion, and an adjusted EBITDA of $800 million to $850 million.

Here's how Uber's largest business segments performed in the quarter:

Mobility (gross bookings): $14.98 billion, up 40% year-over-year

Delivery (gross bookings): $15.02 billion, up 8% year-over-year

Uber relied heavily on growth in its Eats delivery business during the Covid pandemic, but its mobility segment surpassed Eats revenue in every quarter of 2022 as riders began to take more trips. That trend continued during the first quarter of this year, as the company's mobility segment reported $4.33 billion in revenue while delivery reported $3.09 billion.

Uber's freight business booked $1.4 billion in sales for the quarter, down from the $1.8 billion it reported for the same quarter last year. In an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday, Khosrowshahi said consumers have been spending more on services and less on retail, which is shipped by freight.

"We are seeing prices come down from the historically elevated levels that we saw two years ago," he said.

The number of Uber's monthly active platform consumers climbed to 130 million in the fourth quarter, up 13% year over year. There were 2.12 billion trips completed on the platform during the period, up 24% year over year.

Uber will hold its quarterly call with investors at 8:00 a.m. ET Tuesday.