Lyft Launches in Puerto Rico in Latest Geographical Expansion
The company began recruiting drivers in late May on the Caribbean island, promising $100 bonuses to those who complete 50 rides in the first month in the capital of San Juan.
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Uber Stock Looks Expensive -- or Does It?
Key Points Uber is no longer a cash-burning hypergrowth company. It has a diversified platform upon which it can further grow its business. The rideshare leader's premium valuation could be justifiable. 10 stocks we like better than Uber Technologies › Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) has come a long way from its early days as a cash-burning disruptor of the taxi industry. Today, it's a profitable global platform with multiple engines of growth that span mobility, food delivery, logistics, and advertising. But after its share price has more than doubled in the past two years, the stock is no longer cheap. With a trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of around 4.6, it's fair for investors to ask: Has the stock run too far ahead of its fundamentals? While the valuation looks high at first glance, the underlying business might justify the premium. Profitability is no longer just a promise For years, Uber followed a growth-at-all-costs strategy. That's no longer the case. After delivering its first annual profit in 2023, Uber delivered higher revenue and earnings in 2024. Operating income more than doubled from $1.1 billion to $2.8 billion in 2024, and free cash flow also more than doubled from $3.4 billion to $6.9 billion. Uber's profitability streak continued in Q1 2025 when it generated $1.2 billion in operating income on $11.5 billion of revenue. Free cash flow expanded 66% year over year to $2.3 billion. This all demonstrates that its profitability isn't just a temporary condition. The company has fundamentally realigned its business and cost structure, and the results are showing in growth and margins. A multi-engine platform Uber might have started as mainly a ride-hailing operator, but in recent years, it has evolved into a diversified platform. That gives the company multiple ways to expand. Mobility remains its core business, and it's still growing nicely and delivering solid margins and profits thanks to its leadership position in most of its markets. Similarly, delivery -- its second-largest business by revenue -- is now profitable and continues to expand into higher-value verticals like groceries and alcohol. Freight, while still a relatively small revenue contributor that is almost breaking even, adds to the company's long-term optionality in logistics and enterprise transportation. Beyond its core segments, Uber has quietly worked on its monetization, scaling smaller businesses like Uber Ads (advertising) and Uber One, its membership subscription business. This blend of services gives Uber an edge over pure-play delivery or rideshare companies, and it has a huge pool of 150 million monthly active users, plus a vast merchant base, to monetize. Uber's platform also enjoys powerful network effects. As more users join it, it attracts more drivers and merchants. In turn, that drives more transactions, making it even more attractive to customers. That flywheel doesn't just fuel growth -- it also generates a growing pool of first-party data. And with that data, the company's other services like Uber Ads become more effective, enabling better targeting and higher-margin monetization across the ecosystem. And let's not forget other opportunities exist in areas like autonomous ride-hailing and delivery, or its international expansion. While these businesses are still nascent, they have huge growth potential that could rival, if not exceed, Uber's core businesses. Putting Uber's valuation into context Trading at 4.6 times sales, Uber is by no means a bargain. While it's still some distance from the peak P/S of 10.1 that it reached in 2021 during the pandemic, it has about tripled the low point of 1.6 touched in mid-2022. Today, Uber's valuation sits close to midway between the valuations of peers DoorDash and Lyft. Company Trailing P/S Ratio Profitability Uber 4.6 Profitable DoorDash 9.1 Marginally profitable Lyft 1.0 Breakeven Data source: DoorDash is priced for high growth, but its margins are far thinner, and its business is less diversified. Lyft trades at a steep discount but lacks the scale, international reach, and cross-selling synergy that make Uber more compelling. So, while Uber's valuation is not cheap, it's not irrational either, especially considering its growing profitability and market opportunities. What it means for investors Uber stock may no longer be a value play, but it's also no longer just a growth story stock. Today, it has a track record it can point to with solid earnings, multiple growth levers, and optionality. For long-term investors, the question isn't whether Uber is cheap based on one headline metric. It's whether the company can keep executing across its different segments to sustain growth and expand margins. If it can do so, its current share price is quite reasonable. Should you invest $1,000 in Uber Technologies right now? Before you buy stock in Uber Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Uber Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,056,790!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 Lawrence Nga has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends DoorDash and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Lyft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Uber Stock Looks Expensive -- or Does It? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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7 hours ago
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Costco to open new locations in August: Here's where
(NEXSTAR) – While some may joke about not needing a year's worth of mayonnaise or enough nacho cheese to fill a kiddie pool, warehouse club Costco has loyal members around the world – a following set to expand with the opening of new locations in August. The new U.S. locations to open in August are in The Villages, Florida; Richland, Washington; Allen, Texas; and Spring Valley, Nevada. Costco will also be opening locations in Rimouski, Quebec; North Guadalajara, Mexico; and East Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. The expansion follows the June and July openings of stores in South Korea, Sweden and Midland, Texas. Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip said in March that Costco's goal is to open 25-30 new locations annually, split roughly between U.S. and international markets, according to USA Today. Costco, which is based in Issaquah, Washington, opened its first warehouse in Seattle in 1983. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
TechCrunch
8 hours ago
- TechCrunch
Former Tesla president discloses the secret to scaling a company
Few companies have grown as quickly as Tesla, especially just before and after the company launched the Model 3, its first affordable EV. 'We scaled Tesla in 30 months from $2 billion in revenue to $20 billion in revenue,' Jon McNeil, the former president of Tesla who is now co-founder and CEO of DVx Ventures, told the crowd at TechCrunch's All Stage event in Boston. It wasn't McNeil's first time scaling companies, nor would it be his last. Previously, he founded six different companies, and after Tesla, he joined Lyft as COO before starting his own venture firm, where he's launched a dozen startups. Over the years, McNeil has developed a playbook that helps him identify when a company is ripe for scaling. He shared those insights last week with the audience at TechCrunch All Stage 2025. When assessing a company's potential to scale, McNeil primarily judges them on two different measures, product-market fit and go-to-market fit. It's not unusual for investors to focus on those concepts, but McNeil has distilled them into two objective measures. For product-market fit, he asks each startup, 'do 40% of your customers say they cannot live without your product,' he said. If not, then the company isn't ready. 'We keep adding, adding, adding and tweaking the product until we get to 40% and then we say, okay, boom, now we've got product market fit,' McNeil said. 'It's actually objective and measured. It's not a feeling, it's not a sense. It's a metric.' Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW McNeil added, 'We did a study of businesses that actually achieved breakout, and those businesses achieved breakout at roughly that 40% acceptance level.' Second, McNeil looks at whether the company has a mature go-to-market strategy. Specifically, he's interested in whether the amount a company spends to acquire customers, known as customer acquisition cost (CAC), is sufficiently below the total lifetime value (LTV) that the customer will bring the company. When a company starts pulling in four times more money over the life of the customer than it spent to acquire them — an LTV to CAC ratio of four-to-one — that's when he knows the company is ready. 'Then we pour in the cash. But before then, we're doling out cash $100,000 at a time just to get to different stage gates,' he said.
