Amazon's stock was priced at $18 when it went public in 1997. Today, the stock trades for more than $3,600 as the tech behemoth has cashed in on surging markets such as cloud services and online retail.
Veteran tech analyst Mark Mahaney of Evercore ISI thinks Uber could be the next Amazon-like investment as it capitalizes on its own expanding market known as the on-demand economy.
"To me, Uber fits the bill of a still early stage company that has massive TAMs (total addressable markets). It's not founder led and that is one negative. But it has a compelling value proposition," Mahaney said on Yahoo Finance Live.
Mahaney — the author of new tech investment book Nothing But Net — believes Uber has an opportunity to take advantage of hot growth markets like ride-hailing and delivery.
"The total addressable markets that Uber faces are truly massive. We are talking about ride-hailing and delivery, not just restaurant food delivery but all sorts of delivery. I call those trillion dollar TAMs," Mahaney explained.
After a disastrous IPO in 2019, Uber has begun to show it's getting its act together. The company has sold off non-core assets to slash expenses, while also investing more behind its core businesses of ride-hailing and delivery.
Uber's third quarter marked the first time as a public company in which it delivered adjusted operating profits. Third quarter bookings rose 57% from the prior year as mobility picked up with the COVID-19 pandemic rounding the corner.
For the fourth quarter, Uber sees adjusted operating profits in a range of $25 million to $75 million.
Despite the operational progress, Uber has a ways to go to show it could be an Amazon-like stock as Mahaney suggests.
Uber shares are down 12% year to date, under-performing rival Lyft (LYFT) whose stock is unchanged on the year. At $44.59 currently, Uber's stock trades below its 2019 IPO pricing of $45.