Ridesharing company Uber closed down 7.62% on its first day of trading at $41.57 after taking the plunge into the shareholder scrutiny pool as a public company in one of the worst weeks for U.S. markets this year.
In addition to the market volatility and losses that have accompanied speculation over the United States’ trade war with China, Uber faced issues with workers striking in advance of the IPO release date, and slumping prices on shares of competitor Lyft.
Lyft (LYFT), Uber’s chief competitor in the United States, has been flagging considerably since going public in late March. Shares in Lyft fell below their IPO price on their second day of trading and have continued to tumble since. The stock is now down about 25% from the IPO price.
Lyft reported its first earnings report on Tuesday, since going public, which showed more than $1 billion in losses during the first three months of this year. Lyft stock continued its decline the day after.
Uber set a price range of $44 to $50 per share for its IPO in an updated filing last month. On a fully diluted basis, the projected share price would’ve placed Uber’s valuation between $80.53 billion and $91.51 billion. At the midpoint of its stated range, Uber’s valuation would be about $86 billion on a fully diluted basis.
“We believe that recent price reductions for both Uber and Lyft may be indicative of investor hesitance to invest in highly capital-intensive, deeply unprofitable and untested business models at this late stage of the economic cycle,” PitchBook analyst Asad Hussain said.
“When it comes to Uber, we believe there are still questions over the current car-sharing model, the economics of which are not immediately or obviously attractive for sustainable, long-term investment,” Mark Hargraves, head of Framlington Global Equities, wrote in a note.
Still, some investors are more optimistic about the transport services company’s future prospects.
“It’s amazing what [Uber has] built, but they are still not done doing it. They’ve been subsidizing the business,” said Kathleen Smith, principal at Renaissance Capital, which manages IPO-focused exchange-traded funds. “The boat doesn’t float on its own bottom.”
Investors looking to gain exposure to the transportation network company might consider looking at ETFs like the Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO), First Trust U.S. Equity Opportunities ETF (FPX), or RYZZ Managed Futures Strategy Plus ETF (RYZZ), all of which have LYFT holdings.
