Uber Accelerates Growth Outside of Cities, Names New CFO — 2nd Update

By Connor Hart

Uber Technologies continues to gain customers at a fast clip thanks to ongoing geographic and product expansions, which executives say will fuel growth for years to come.

The ride-hailing company also on Wednesday named Balaji Krishnamurthy as its next finance chief, succeeding Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah, who will step down Feb. 16.

Uber's fourth-quarter trips increased 22% from a year ago, to 3.8 billion, with an 18% rise in monthly active platform customers. Overall gross bookings were also up 22%, to $54.1 billion, fueled by double-digit-percentage growth across both its mobility and delivery businesses.

Shares whipsawed, initially falling more than 8% premarket after the company reported a sharply lower profit in its latest quarter, hurt by a large charge tied to its equity investments. The stock climbed slightly higher during Uber's earnings call before falling again, recently down 6.1%, to $73.15, in Wednesday's regular session.

Uber said it is gaining new customers nearly twice as fast in suburban and rural markets, compared with densely populated urban markets, as the company continues to add drivers in new geographic regions.

"There's a lot of runway in front of us still," incoming finance chief Krishnamurthy said on a call with analysts.

He added Uber continues to benefit from its pricing strategy, which targets both higher- and lower-income consumers. Lower-priced products, including the company's recently introduced "Wait and Save" option, are seeing strong momentum. And the same can be said of higher-priced products such as Uber XXL.

It has also helped that Uber has held all its prices relatively consistent over the past year, Krishnamurthy said.

Krishnamurthy joined Uber in 2019, having since held a variety of leadership positions including vice president of strategic finance and head of investor relations. Krishnamurthy is well known and respected by Wall Street, JPMorgan analysts said, making him well positioned to succeed Mahendra-Rajah.

Mahendra-Rajah said he was presented with a new opportunity over the holidays that will allow him to "serve America and give back to the country that has given me and my family so much." He will stay with Uber through July 1, serving as a senior finance advisor and helping to ensure a successful and seamless transition, the company said.

Looking ahead, Uber said its free cash flow generation provides room for the company to invest in advancing its autonomous-vehicle ambitions, expecting to be in 15 cities by the end of the year.

AVs represent a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity, and Uber is currently partnering with Nvidia to collect data to help drive the adoption of AVs. That data, combined with the advanced simulation capabilities that many of Uber's partners are developing, should result in "a very fast roadmap to AV readiness for many, many players," Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said.

For the current quarter, Uber forecast gross bookings of $52 billion to $53.5 billion, ahead of Wall Street models for $51.39 billion. However, the company's adjusted earnings outlook of 65 cents a share to 72 cents a share missed analyst views for 75 cents a share.

For its three months ended Dec. 31, Uber posted a profit of $296 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with $6.88 billion, or $3.21 a share, a year earlier. The recent quarter included a $1.6 billion net headwind from revaluations of Uber's equity investments.

Stripping out certain one-time items, earnings were 71 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of 85 cents a share.

Revenue jumped 20% to $14.37 billion, just ahead of the $14.32 billion that Wall Street had modeled.

Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 04, 2026 10:29 ET (15:29 GMT)