Uber has reported its first full-year profit since going public in 2019 and its shares hit an all-time high as strong bookings in the final quarter of the year pushed revenue beyond Wall Street expectations.

Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said “2023 was an inflection point for Uber” after struggling through the Covid-19 pandemic when government lockdowns kept millions at home.

Uber has focused on cutting costs and building up a food-delivery division, which has since become a major revenue driver.

Uber’s ride-hailing service has gradually bounced back too and figures from the fourth quarter suggest the company is moving in the right direction.

Delivery revenue grew 6% and revenue for the ride-share part of the business climbed 34%.

Uber earned 1.43 billion dollars (£1.13bn), or 66 cents per share, much better than the per share earnings of 15 cents that Wall Street had expected, according to analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research.

The company earned 595 million dollars (£471bn), or 29 cents per share, in the same period last year.

Revenue totalled 9.94 billion dollars (£7.87bn), beating Wall Street projections for 9.75 billion dollars (£7.72bn).

Gross bookings surged 22% from the prior-year period to 37.6 billion dollars (£29.8bn).

For the year, Uber posted a profit of 1.89 billion dollars, or 87 cents per share, on revenue of 37.28 billion dollars (£29.5bn).

“Our audiences are larger and more engaged than ever, with our platform powering an average of nearly 26 million daily trips last year,” Mr Khosrowshahi said.

Last month Uber announced that it was shutting down alcohol delivery app Drizly at the end of March so that it could focus on its core Uber Eats strategy of helping consumers get almost anything on a single app.

Shares of Uber Technologies, based in San Francisco, reached an all-time high early on Wednesday.