What Happened?
Shares of on-demand food delivery service DoorDash (NYSE: DASH) fell 15.5% in the morning session after the company reported third-quarter results that missed profit expectations and provided a weaker-than-expected forecast for the upcoming quarter, raising concerns about future profitability. While the food delivery service's revenue of $3.45 billion for the third quarter surpassed analyst estimates, its GAAP earnings per share of $0.55 fell short of the consensus forecast of $0.68. More importantly, DoorDash's guidance for the fourth quarter was a significant point of concern for investors. The company projected adjusted EBITDA of $760 million at the midpoint, which was considerably below Wall Street's expectation of $822.4 million. This weaker outlook suggested potential pressures on profitability, overshadowing the revenue beat and leading to a sharp sell-off in the company's shares.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
DoorDash’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 13 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for DoorDash and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 10 days ago when the stock gained 2.5% on the news that Goldman Sachs reinstated coverage on the stock with a "Buy" rating and a $315 price target. The analyst note cited momentum from the company's recently completed acquisition of its U.K.-based peer, Deliveroo. Goldman Sachs noted that it incorporated Deliveroo into its estimates and assumed DoorDash would invest to drive accelerating growth for the unit. This action was part of a series of recent analyst activities concerning the company. In the preceding days, Truist Securities had maintained its "Buy" rating while raising its price target, and Barclays had reinstated its own coverage with an "Equal-Weight" rating.
DoorDash is up 18% since the beginning of the year, but at $201.41 per share, it is still trading 28.5% below its 52-week high of $281.74 from October 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of DoorDash’s shares at the IPO in December 2020 would now be looking at an investment worth $1,063.
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