If You Invested $1000 In Uber IPO 4 Years Ago, This Is How Much You'd Have Now

Zinger Key Points
  • Uber was once the most-valued startup ahead of its 2019 IPO.
  • The ride-hailing company's stock hasn't budged much, weighed down by several factors,

Ride-hailing service Uber Technologies, Inc. UBER became a public company exactly four years ago and the ride for investors hasn't been smooth so far.

Debuting With Fanfare: San Francisco, California-based Uber was founded by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick in 2009 as a solution to the problem of mobility they personally experienced. The duo had to spend a hefty $800 for a private driver on New Year's Eve and this sowed the seed for Uber, which they conceptualized as a mobility-as-a-service.

Camp was the technocrat offering his expertise and Kalanick joined as the incubator.

Camp, along with some friends, built the prototype of Uber’s mobile app. Following a beta launch in May 2010, the service and the mobile app were widely rolled out in 2011. The company followed it up with the launch of a shared transportation service in San Francisco in August 2014 and also started a food-delivery service under the brand name Uber Eats.

By 2015, Uber became the most valuable startup, as its valuation based on the funding rounds rose to $51 billion.

Uber could not survive in China for long and sold its business to local stalwart DiDi in 2016 and earned an 18% stake in the latter in exchange.

The company went public in 2019 by offering 180 million shares at a price of $45 per share. The stock opened at $42 on its debut on the NYSE and moved in a range of $41.06-$45 before settling the session at $41.57.

The shares have been mostly range-bound since then. Immediately after the pandemic peak, the stock rallied to its all-time high of $64.05 on Feb. 11, 2021. It has come notably off the level since then.

Source: Benzinga Pro

See Also: How To Invest In Startups

The Controversies: Even ahead of the public debut, the company was mired in several controversies. In 2017, a blog post by ex-Uber engineer Susan Fowler that documented her experience of sexism at the company went viral.

Kalanick was also involved in other controversies, including his close association with then-President Donald Trump and Uber's decision not to participate in a New York City taxi strike in protest of Trump's travel ban.

Under pressure from major investors, Kalanick went on a leave of absence initially and then quit in 2017, with Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi taking over the helm.

Fundamentals Looking Up: Cut-throat competition has been weighing down on Uber's bottom line and it is yet to turn into a profit.

The first-quarter results released last week showed that the company's loss shrunk from $3.04 per share to $0.08 per share. Revenue climbed about 29% to $8.82 billion.

Following the results, Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein noted improvements in consumer/driver engagement pushing up trip growth. The company is also a beneficiary of a near-term tailwind from a return-to-office on the West Coast and upfront pricing in select international markets.

Helfstein said Uber continues to be his top large-cap pick.

The average analyst price target for Uber shares, based on data compiled by TipRanks, is $48.74, suggesting about 28% upside potential.

IPO Returns: A $1,000 Invested in Uber at the IPO price of $45 would have fetched 22.22 shares. The same would be worth about $849 now, a 15.13% loss.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

In premarket trading on Wednesday, Uber shares shed 0.58% to $37.97, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Read Next: Uber Got Its Mojo Back While Lyft Faces an Existential Crisis

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Comments
Loading...
Posted In: Analyst ColorEquitiesNewsEducationTop StoriesTechTrading IdeasExpert IdeasGarrett CampJason Helfsteinmobilityride-sharingTravis Kalanick
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!