NEW YORK, March 13, 2026, 17:17 EDT
- Grab shares slipped 1.1% to close at $3.71 on Friday, following Thursday’s 3.6% slide.
- Grab logged its first full-year net profit and gave the green light to a $500 million buyback, but investors aren’t looking past the company’s 2026 revenue outlook, which missed Wall Street’s mark.
Shares of Grab Holdings dropped 1.1% to $3.71 on Friday, following a 3.6% slide the previous session. The stock is now hovering much closer to its 52-week low at $3.36, well off its $6.62 peak. Investors remain wary about the Southeast Asian ride-hailing and delivery company’s softer near-term outlook.
That’s coming into focus as investors weigh Grab’s ability to sustain growth—but now, they’re less interested in its first brush with profitability than in whether it can avoid eroding margins in rides and deliveries. Friday told the story: shares of Uber and Lyft moved higher, highlighting that the selloff in Grab looked more like a company issue than a sector-wide retreat.
On Feb. 11, the company projected 2026 revenue at $4.04 billion to $4.10 billion, trailing analyst consensus of $4.13 billion. Adjusted EBITDA, a key profitability metric, was pegged between $700 million and $720 million—just shy of LSEG’s $721.7 million estimate. Fourth-quarter revenue landed at $906 million, up 19% year-on-year but still short of expectations. In spite of that, Grab posted its first net profit for a full year and rolled out a $500 million share buyback plan.
Management isn’t budging on affordability. Grab continues to roll out Saver discounts, deals, and bundling to keep its price-conscious base, with CFO Peter Oey telling Reuters, “We’re going to continue to make our rides affordable.” Volumes might get some shelter from that strategy. But investors are still watching the impact on incentives. Reuters
Grab is chasing a revenue boost of over 20% annually, aiming for $1.5 billion in EBITDA by 2028, according to a plan unveiled late last month. President and COO Alex Hungate says the strategy hinges on pulling rides, food, groceries, and financial services even closer together within a single app.
Hungate described Grab’s “first and best” use of its cash as putting it back into Southeast Asia, and brushed aside speculation about a merger with Indonesia’s GoTo, saying there was “no update.” Investors are left trying to square the longer-term growth story with the more immediate issue—can Grab keep demand steady without resorting more aggressively to discounts and incentives? Reuters
There’s something else up ahead. Grab has called an extraordinary shareholder meeting for March 24, according to a February filing. Investors are set to weigh a proposal to double the voting rights on Class B shares to 90 from 45, while converting other Class B holders into Class A stock. The board argues the shift is needed to keep a grip on long-term control and ensure GXS Bank stays mostly Singaporean-owned.
Risks remain clear enough. Back in January, Reuters flagged that Indonesia was mulling a draft decree to boost financial and social perks for ride-hailing drivers—a move that could squeeze profits in Grab’s top market. Over at Huatai Securities, analysts have cautioned that higher outlays for autonomous-vehicle alliances and AI work could dent margins long before Grab gets near its 2028 targets.
The stock’s action is all about the near term at this point. Grab is still trading far beneath the $6.62 high from last year, and Friday’s finish didn’t budge investors from their wait-and-see stance. They’re looking for solid evidence that growth, affordability, and profit can actually move up in tandem.
