Uber (UBER) is one of those stocks that honestly generates strong opinions from everyone. From drivers, riders, regulators, and investors, because most of us have interacted with its variety of services at some point.
But for shareholders, the point is not whether Uber is popular or controversial. The real point is whether the business is compounding.
Jim Cramer clearly revealed his position on Monday, Aug. 17, in the “Mad Money” Lightning Round.
“I do say Uber is one great long-term stock. I am not backing away from that. The stock is turning here at 22 times earnings,” Jim Cramer said.
I am a buyer of Uber, not a holder, not a seller.
UBER trades at $74.66, down 8.63% year-to-date and 20.56% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance.
The stock has significantly underperformed the S&P 500 in 2026, which is precisely why Cramer’s language was specific about the word “buyer.”
Thinking about it, a stock that has lagged the market while the business accelerated is the setup Cramer is identifying as a value opportunity.
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The business case Cramer is pointing to
Uber reported second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 5, showing a business operating from genuine strength.
- Gross bookings grew 24% year-over-year (YOY) to $58.0 billion, and 22% on a constant-currency basis
- Trips grew 18% YOY to 3.9 billion
- Revenue grew 12% YOY to $14.2 billion
- Adjusted EBITDA grew 33% to $2.8 billion, with an EBITDA margin of 4.9%, up from 4.5% a year ago
- Free cash flow was $2.8 billion. Non-GAAP EPS grew 35% year over year to $0.81
- Source: Uber Second Quarter 2026
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said a specific data point in the earnings release that I found more compelling than the headline numbers.
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“We’ve added more first-time users over the past twelve months than in any period over the past five years,” Khosrowshahi said.
Uber is a platform still in an active customer acquisition phase. It’s actually not a mature business harvesting an installed base.
For Q3 2026, Uber guided gross bookings of $58.25-$60.25 billion, representing 18% to 22% growth YOY on a constant-currency basis.
What 22 times forward earnings actually means for Uber at this stage
Cramer’s specific mention of 22 times earnings is the valuation call embedded in his buy recommendation.
The Forward P/E of 22.37 times on a $2.8 billion quarterly free cash flow company and growing gross bookings at 22% is a specific and defensible argument for undervaluation.
Uber has a market cap of $153 billion, according to Yahoo Finance, against trailing twelve-month revenue of $55.23 billion. Return on equity is 37.16% on a trailing basis.
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I don’t see these metrics in an underperformer. Neither are they metrics of a money-losing startup. I see them as metrics of a maturing platform business that the market has been pricing for its past controversies rather than its current earnings trajectory.
In fact, the market share picture reinforces the platform advantage. Uber holds approximately 34.78% of total market revenue in its competitive set and 47.84% of professional services market share in ride-hailing, according to CSIMarket data through Q1 2026.
The closest competitor in the U.S. professional services category is Didi at 29.81%, and Lyft holds 5.77%. According to late 2025 Statista data, Uber’s U.S. brand awareness is 89%.
The autonomous vehicle strategy that extends Uber’s long-term runway
The partnership pipeline Uber has built in 2026, alongside prior ones, is the forward-looking element that gives credibility to Cramer’s long-term framing.
In August alone, Uber has announced autonomous partnerships with Wayve for London, Pony.ai to deploy more than 2,000 robotaxis in Europe, Hinomaru Kotsu for a Tokyo robotaxi pilot, and Zipline for drone delivery to millions of Americans
Earlier in the year, partnerships with Ulta Beauty, Ace Hardware, GameStop, and Ahold Delhaize expanded the Uber Eats platform.
The autonomous vehicle strategy is the reason Uber’s stock has been depressed despite strong fundamentals.
Why? Investors are debating whether Waymo, Tesla, and other AV players will eventually route around Uber’s platform entirely or whether Uber’s network advantage makes it the indispensable distribution layer regardless of who builds the car. I see Cramer betting on the latter.
My read of the autonomous evidence is that every new AV partnership Uber signs — whether Waymo‘s exclusive deal in Austin and Atlanta or the European Pony.ai expansion — actually reinforces the platform thesis.
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We both can fairly say that each partner choosing Uber’s network is evidence that building consumer distribution from scratch is harder than leveraging Uber’s existing 3.9 billion quarterly trips.
I think that at $74, down 20% over the past year, while the business generated $2.8 billion in quarterly free cash flow and added first-time users at a five-year record pace, Cramer’s “buyer, not a holder, not a seller” call has a clear and strong fundamental foundation behind it.
Related: Waymo and Uber make critical robotaxi move in major U.S. market