News about food delivery

Uber's third-quarter revenue rose 10% to $14.77 billion, slightly above the $14.69 billion analyst estimate, though earnings per share of 25 cents fell short of 96 cents expected. Net income of $512 million fell 92% from a year earlier, which included a $4.9 billion benefit from a tax valuation release. Mobility revenue declined 2% to $7.52 billion, missing the $7.71 billion estimate, while delivery revenue rose 23% to $5.49 billion, just below the $5.51 billion average. Freight sales jumped 34% to $1.76 billion, beating the $1.49 billion consensus and driving the revenue beat. For the fourth quarter, Uber forecast bookings of $64.5 billion at the midpoint, in line with the $64.26 billion estimate.

DoorDash (DASH) shares are down 33.8% over the past twelve months against a 15.3% gain for the S&P 500, and sit 36.7% below their highest close of the past year. The stock trades at 5.0 times twelve-month sales, about half the 9.7 times recorded a year earlier, though the June-quarter operating margin fell to 3.5% from 5.0%. At the October 26 close it traded at 87.0 times earnings and 25.9 times operating cash flow, which the article says makes it look far more expensive on profit than on cash. Analysts expect third-quarter 2026 revenue of $4.66 billion, about 35% higher than a year earlier, and management guided adjusted EBITDA of $0.95 billion to $1.1 billion. The article says buying before the November report would not be too early if revenue meets forecasts and adjusted EBITDA falls within or above guidance, but would be early if either metric falls short.

Over the past six months, UBER returned -1% and DASH returned 22%, as of October 12. Uber says customers who use both ride-hailing and Uber Eats grow 1.5x faster than those who use only one service, while DoorDash is expanding into grocery, retail, advertising and merchant services. In Q2 2026, DoorDash orders rose 27% to 970 million and revenue rose 36% to $4.5 billion, or 24% excluding the Deliveroo acquisition. Uber posted gross bookings above $58 billion and trailing 12-month free cash flow above $10 billion. At 15.92x forward earnings for Uber versus 38.02x for DoorDash, the article notes that Uber's trailing P/E of 15.22x is affected by a roughly $1.6 billion pre-tax revaluation gain, and says Uber has the easier valuation case, while DoorDash must still prove its newer categories can become profitable.