Truist reiterates Buy on Uber stock, cites AV positioning strength By Investing.com

Truist reiterated a Buy rating on Uber and kept its price target at $112, implying about 50% upside from $74.70. The firm highlighted strengthening momentum in Rides and Eats, expected U.S. Mobility growth acceleration in 2026, and a faster pace of autonomous vehicle launches in 2H26/FY27. Recent analyst actions have also turned more positive, with multiple firms raising targets after Uber's strong first-quarter performance.

Analysis

The market is still underpricing how much of UBER’s earnings power is now a software-like compounding story rather than a pure mobility cycle. The key second-order effect is that membership and pricing/dispatch efficiency can offset fuel pressure and cyclical softness, making the earnings base less sensitive to consumer macro than the headline gross bookings narrative implies. That supports a higher multiple if management can keep converting engagement into take rate and repeat frequency.

The more important optionality is autonomous vehicles, but the catalyst is slower and lumpier than the market wants to believe. The real inflection is not near-term robotaxi revenue; it is Uber becoming the demand aggregation layer for AV fleets, which could protect its network relevance even if it does not own the hardware economics. If launch cadence accelerates into 2H26-2027, the stock could re-rate well before meaningful revenue contribution, because investors will discount the durability of the moat rather than the size of the TAM.

DASH looks like the softer relative-value expression here: if Uber’s delivery unit keeps improving while competitors face unit economics pressure, DoorDash loses narrative support around share gains and pricing power. The contrarian risk on UBER is that consensus is extrapolating the current momentum too cleanly into 2026, when mobility growth can normalize and AV enthusiasm can fade if deployments remain pilot-heavy. The main reversal trigger is a few quarters of decelerating U.S. mobility bookings or evidence that membership growth is not translating into margin expansion.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Maintain/add to UBER long on 3-6 month horizon; use any post-rally consolidation to build, targeting a 15-20% upside rerate if mobility and membership metrics hold. Invalidated if U.S. bookings growth decelerates for two consecutive quarters.
• Express relative value as long UBER / short DASH for 1-2 quarters; thesis is that UBER has better optionality in AV and more resilient cross-segment monetization, while DASH has less room to reaccelerate. Aim for 8-12% spread capture, with DASH as the leg to trim on any delivery margin improvement.
• Buy UBER Jan-2027 calls or call spreads for AV optionality; the market is likely to underprice the re-rating before revenue shows up. Prefer defined-risk structures given execution timing uncertainty and possible multiple compression if AV milestones slip.
• For event-driven traders, wait for any 5-8% pullback to enter long UBER rather than chasing strength; the stock can be owned as a quality growth name, but the better risk/reward is on dips because the near-term catalyst stack is already partially reflected.