Uber Technologies reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings and revenue, even though the ride-hailing company's gross bookings fell short of Wall Street estimates. The company posted a net income of $1.20 a share for the September quarter, significantly up from $0.10 the previous year and ahead of the consensus on Visible Alpha for $0.42.
This impressive result included a pretax benefit of $1.7 billion, largely attributed to unrealized gains on Uber's equity investments. Revenue also advanced by 20%, reaching $11.19 billion, surpassing Visible Alpha's projection of $10.98 billion. In a statement, Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi remarked, 'We delivered yet another record quarter of profitable growth at a global scale, reflecting the strength of our platform.
We continue to build with an eye towards the future, optimizing our products for new customer segments and geographies.' Despite revenue growth, gross bookings increased by 16% to $40.97 billion, missing the Visible Alpha consensus of $41.25 billion. Consequently, shares of the company dropped 9.9% in Thursday trading. Mobility gross bookings rose by 17% year-over-year in the third quarter, while segments related to delivery and freight increased by 16% and 2%, respectively.
The number of trips surged by 17% to 2.87 billion on a yearly basis, with monthly active platform consumers climbing 13% to 161 million. Wedbush Securities noted, 'Uber continues to deliver solid growth and margin expansion but expectations have risen accordingly and the magnitude of profit beats has normalized in recent quarters.' For the ongoing quarter, Uber anticipates gross bookings to range between $42.75 billion and $44.25 billion, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 16% to 20% at constant currency.
Analysts on Visible Alpha are currently estimating bookings at $43.7 billion. The company is on track to achieve 20% gross booking growth on a constant currency basis for the full year, according to Chief Financial Officer Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah. The projected growth in year-over-year trips for the fourth quarter is expected to align closely with that of the September quarter. Uber forecasted adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to fall between $1.78 billion and $1.88 billion for the current quarter.
In the September quarter, adjusted EBITDA rose to $1.69 billion from $1.09 billion the previous year. Wedbush analysts led by Scott Devitt wrote in their note, 'We think Uber is well positioned to deliver mid-teens bookings growth over the intermediate term with rising margins and strong free cash flow conversion.' The brokerage maintained its outperform rating on Uber's stock, with a price target set at $86..