Uber Stock Ready to Ride Higher on Waymo Partnership

Key Points

• Uber stock may have just found a new way to come back into its growth phase, by seeking a new partnership with Alphabet's Waymo platform.
• The combination is already being modeled and implemented, bringing new optimism for Uber investors.
• Wall Street analysts and institutional investors have taken action on the view for a higher price in Uber stock.

Companies that were once hot and known for their growth stages typically come to a plateau once their size starts getting too big to keep churning out double-digit growth rates across the board. When this happens, investors can start to reduce their positions in the once great run higher or wait for new catalysts or developments to come into the company and spark a new growth stage once again; that is as simple as it gets for professional money managers.

In today’s market, one name has become synonymous with transportation services, a name and brand that most consumers are familiar with in the technology sector. It delivers the sort of financial performance that every value investor wants to see on their balance sheets and portfolios.

However, fears of this company falling out of its growth stage have placed new pressure on its management’s shoulders, potentially leading the company into a new growth phase.

The company in question is Uber Technologies Inc. NYSE: UBER. This name has penetrated the ridesharing industry, with few competitors today.

While the company’s financials have all of the right components to keep it headed toward higher prices, concerns about upkeeping growth initiatives have led it to consider a partnership with Waymo, a similar platform hosted by Alphabet Inc. NASDAQ: GOOGL, and that could be the catapult forward for Uber.

What a Partnership Could Look Like

The term robotaxi has been coined by Tesla Inc. NASDAQ: TLSA for some time now. However, the true developments in the autonomous driving arena have to be granted to Alphabet’s Waymo as a differentiating technology. True autonomous ridesharing has already been achieved.

Up to 250,000 monthly rides have become the norm for Waymo, which operates in less than a handful of states. This speaks to the platform's adoption rate among its customers. Seeing that Uber and Waymo have so much in common, it makes all the sense in the world that the two would partner.

Talks about making this happen are already taking place. Still, investors need to understand what this combination could look like in the future. The proposal is for consumers to have the option to book a Waymo or physical Uber driver, depending on time and pricing dynamics, where the combined platform offers the best available option right away.

Of course, the two platforms will see mutual benefit in this joint operation. Waymo will find a new way to keep pushing its adoption rates further while Uber locks in on a new expansion path, solving the growth plateau dilemma for investors today.

Now, the question becomes whether the market is already recognizing some of these developments in Uber stock and where the potential ceiling might be moving forward.

Here’s the Market’s Take on Uber

Even after a one-year performance of up to 36.7%, Uber stock has the potential to keep reaching higher highs in the coming months and quarters. Now trading at 94% of its 52-week high, Uber stock is a great candidate for momentum buyers and investors.

Speaking of these momentum buyers, investors can already see that dynamic taking place over the most recent quarter, as $6.1 billion worth of institutional capital has justified its way into Uber stock already, signaling further confidence and optimism for the company's future under this new development with Waymo.

This new positioning adds to the $11 billion of institutional buying that took place over the previous quarter, adding to the snowball effect of backing and momentum that can be seen in Uber stock’s future.

Understanding that Uber now has all of the right components to keep delivering attractive returns for investors, some on Wall Street have also decided to take action in favor of the name. Ivan Feinseth, an analyst at Tigress Financial, decided to reiterate his Buy rating on Uber stock as of mid-May 2025, with an added bonus on top.

This analyst also boosted his valuation target from his previous view of $103 per share, whereas now a more fair assessment seems to lie closer to $110. This implies that Uber stock could rally by as much as 25.3% from where it trades today, not to mention make a new 52-week high while at it.

A new high, along with continued bullish quarters for Uber, could attract another massive wave of institutional buying, creating a virtuous cycle of upside in the stock for the coming months and quarters, a theme investors who think Uber is past its growth stage could come to regret not being a part of.