Buy Uber stock on AV weakness, Jefferies says

Investing.com -- Jefferies is urging investors to take advantage of the recent pullback in Uber shares, arguing that concerns over autonomous-vehicle competition are overblown.

“We recommend buying UBER,” analyst John Colantuono wrote, noting the stock has fallen about 17% since late September, pushing its valuation “back to last year’s low, when similar concerns paved the way for a ~70% rally through the first ~9 months of 2025.”

Jefferies stated that “AVs will have nearly zero impact on growth through 2027.”

According to Jefferies, fears have resurfaced after “Waymo’s accelerating expansion plans” and “Tesla’s recent progress on AV tech.”

Waymo has scaled rapidly, reaching 450,000 paid rides per week in December, up from 250,000 in April.

The company’s target of 1 million weekly rides by the end of 2026 would still represent just 1.2% of US rideshare, Jefferies said. Its impact on Uber would be minor, amounting to only “0.07%/0.11% headwinds to UBER’s 2026/2027 Bookings growth.”

Tesla, meanwhile, is becoming “the new boogeyman,” Jefferies wrote, citing investor worries over its manufacturing capacity and plans for a self-driving fleet.

But the firm believes that even after scaling, Tesla’s AV unit costs would likely remain “slightly above rideshare,” limiting its ability to undercut prices.

Jefferies also highlighted Uber’s expanding AV partnerships, which it said create “an ecosystem that reduces reliance on any single provider.”

With 160 million Mobility users, Jefferies believes Uber is “uniquely well positioned” to help emerging AV players scale and capture demand.

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