By Dhirendra Tripathi

Investing.com – Uber stock (NYSE:) traded 1% weaker in Thursday’s premarket as the company booked a net loss of $2.4 billion in the third quarter and gave an outlook that analysts found underwhelming.

It was mostly due to significant writedowns on equity investments. This included Didi Global (NYSE :), which suffered heavily from a fierce battle with regulators last summer. Uber also spent more on drivers’ recruitment.

Though Uber didn’t name Didi in its report, it holds around 12% in Didi which listed on the NYSE on June 30. Since then, Didi’s shares have lost more than 41%.  

The ride-hailing company also holds 7.8% in India’s food delivery app Zomato though those shares trade well above their IPO price.

When forecasting December quarter adjusted earnings, the company provided a broad range of estimates. It said it expects to see them anywhere from $25 million to $75 million. Analysts expected more,  given that the pandemic-related driver shortage is easing (thanks in part to its incentives), allowing the company to cash in better on a market where public confidence has rebounded to a level that encourages more cab use, both in absolute terms and relative to public mass transit systems.

Uber managed to post an adjusted profit the first time it listed, even though it was modest at $8 million.

This is compared to an adjusted EBITDA figure of $67.3million Lyft (NASDAQ) Uber’s smaller rival expects adjusted EBITDA of $72.5 million at the midpoint of its fourth-quarter guidance range.

Uber’s gross bookings grew 57% on the year to $23.1 billion and revenue grew 72% to $4.8 billion.