Uber Technology Inc. shares rose in after-hours trading today despite the company reporting its biggest loss in three quarters.

The upside came after Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi (pictured) told investors that riders were starting to return to the service and that its Uber Eats division continues to boom.

For the quarter ended March 31, Uber reported gross bookings rose 8% from a year ago, to $15.776 billion, on revenue of $3.543 billion, up 14% year-over-year. Adjusted net revenue rose 18%, to $3.256 billion.

Losses at Uber, which had been improving in previous quarters, blew out to $2.936 billion, a 190% higher loss than a year ago. The loss included $277 million in stock-based compensation expense and pretax impairment write-downs of $2.1 billion. Excluding those line items, net of the tax benefit Uber would have booked a loss of $1.1 billion.

The loss came to $1.70 per share versus analyst predictions of 88 cents per share, but as CNBC noted, estimates ranged widely given the unpredictable spread and impact of COVID-19.

Uber’s ride-hailing business reported adjusted earnings of $581 million, up from $389 million year-on-year but down $161 million from the fourth quarter of 2019 as the coronavirus pandemic started to affect Uber’s business in March. Uber Eats lost $313 million, down $4 million from a year ago but an improvement from a $461 million loss in the last quarter.

“While our Rides business has been hit hard by the ongoing pandemic, we have taken quick action to preserve the strength of our balance sheet, focus additional resources on Uber Eats, and prepare us for any recovery scenario,” Khosrowshahi said in a statement. “Along with the surge in food delivery, we are encouraged by the early signs we are seeing in markets that are beginning to open back up.”

That positivity was reflected in the earnings call, where Khosrowshahi said that although its ride-hailing business was down 80% in April, volume had continued to increase in each of the last three weeks. He added that Eats was now up more than 50% year-over-year as more people ordered food, with more restaurants signing up during the pandemic. “The big opportunity we thought Eats was just got bigger,” Khosrowshahi said.

The earnings report comes after Uber announced yesterday that it was planning to lay off about 3,700 employees, roughly 14% of its global workforce. Earlier today, Uber led a $170 million venture capital round into Lime Bikes Inc. and as part of the deal is offloading its Jump bike-sharing business to Lime.

Uber share price was certainly interesting throughout the day. Shares in Uber closed regular trading up 11%, to $30.93, and that was before its earnings report dropped. The rise may have been related to rival Lyft Inc. which after reporting better-than-expected earnings yesterday saw its share surge, up almost 22% in regular trading today. Investors may have seen Lyft’s positive numbers as a sign that Uber would follow.

The loss aside, Uber mostly did follow. Uber shares rose a further 6% in after-hours trading.

Photo: The Presidential Office of Ukraine/Wikimedia Commons