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Uber Technologies UBER, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, has pursued aggressive global expansion and broad business diversification. While ride-sharing remains its core operation, the company has built substantial additional revenue streams through Uber Eats, its food delivery platform, and Uber Freight, a logistics marketplace. This multi-segment approach suggests Uber aims to establish itself as a comprehensive transportation and delivery ecosystem rather than just a ride-hailing service.
Lyft LYFT — also based in San Francisco — has adopted a more concentrated strategy. Operating almost entirely within the United States, the company remains focused primarily on ride-sharing, with far less emphasis on diversification. This narrower approach allows Lyft to concentrate resources on improving the core product, but it also limits exposure to faster-growing adjacencies such as delivery and international markets.
Earlier this month, both these ride-hailing players reported their respective third-quarter 2025 results. Given the contrasting strategies of UBER and LYFT, let us examine which stock appears to be a stronger play post the third-quarter 2025 results.
On Nov. 4, UBER released rosy third-quarter 2025 results, wherein both earnings and revenues surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Uber’s third-quarter 2025 earnings per share of $3.11 outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 67 cents and improved in excess of 100% year over year. Total revenues of $13.46 billion outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.26 billion. The top line jumped 20.4% year over year on a reported basis. Strong gross bookings aided results. Uber expects fourth-quarter 2025 gross bookings in the $52.25-$53.75 billion range, representing growth of 17% to 21% year over year on a constant currency basis.
The earnings beat by Uber in the September quarter enabled it to maintain the excellent earnings surprise record. Uber has outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the past four quarters. The average beat is in excess of 200%.
Uber Technologies, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Uber Technologies, Inc. Quote
Despite the all-around outperformance, shares of the company have been on a decline following the earnings release, underperforming the Zacks Internet-Services industry. The southward price movement was mainly due to the soft EBITDA guidance for the fourth quarter, given by the company.
Management expects adjusted EBITDA to be in the $2.41-$2.51 billion. Apart from the soft EBITDA projection, the commentary that autonomous vehicles or AVs are unlikely to be profitable for a few years, going forward, may have disappointed investors, contributing to the downward stock movement.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Uber aims to gain a stronghold in the highly promising robotaxi market through strategic partnerships. To this end, the company has partnerships with many companies. By adopting this approach, Uber has avoided the massive R&D costs associated with developing autonomous systems independently.
On Nov. 5, Lyft released its third-quarter 2025 earnings report. Lyft’s third-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings per share of 26 cents lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 30 cents. The metric was also met the year-ago figure of 26 cents. Total revenues of $1.68 billion missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.7 billion. This compares to year-ago revenues of $1.52 billion.
The earnings miss by Lyft in September meant that its earnings surprise record continued. Lyft has outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate only once in the past four quarters, missing thrice. The average beat is 1.2%.
Lyft, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Lyft, Inc. Quote
In the September quarter, gross bookings increased 18% year over year to $4.8 billion. This was the 18th consecutive quarter where Lyft demonstrated double-digit year-on-year growth in the key metric, demonstrating the resilience and momentum of the company’s customer-friendly strategy. For the fourth quarter of 2025, Lyft expects gross bookings in the $5.01-$5.13 billion range, indicating 17-20% growth from fourth-quarter 2024 actuals, growing slightly faster than rides.
The strong gross bookings scenario apart, Lyft’s partnership with Curb, a leading ride-hailing platform for licensed taxis, earlier this month, pleased investors. As a result, Lyft has gained in double-digits since its earnings release.
The partnership to connect Lyft riders with Curb’s network of drivers through an integration with the Curb Flow platform. Expressing delight, Jeremy Bird, Lyft’s EVP of Driver Experience, stated, “Our partnership with Curb will create a better experience for Lyft riders – by adding drivers on Curb to the platform, wait times will shrink and riders will get to where they are going faster.”
Lyft is trading at a forward sales multiple of 1.26X, comparing favorably to Uber’s 3.22X. LYFT has a Value Score of B compared with UBER’s D.
Agreed that both companies are benefiting from gross bookings growth, on the back of the strength of the ride-share market. Lyft’s favorable valuation picture, the deal with Curb and the better price performance of late places it on a more solid footing than Uber. Uber’s unfavorable EBITDA guidance and the commentary on AV profitability seem to have alarmed investors.
Based on our write-up, Lyft emerges as a clear winner compared with Uber, and appears to be better placed currently in terms of investment worthiness. Lyft currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and Uber carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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