Uber's turmoil has reportedly taken a toll on its valuation
Four mutual funds that have invested in the app-based taxi company have marked down their stakes in it by as much as 15%, according to The Journal. Together the moves represent the first major set of markdowns to hit the company, which has faced near-continuous turmoil since late last year.
Uber's stock, which is privately held, had been valued at $48.77 per share since late 2015. At the end of June, though, Vanguard Group, Principal, and Hartford Funds all valued it at $41.16 per share, a 15% decrease, according to the report. T. Rowe Price Group, meanwhile, valued its Uber stock at $42.70 a share.
The San Francisco company has been rocked by multiple scandals and bad news, most notably an investigation into its workplace culture that uncovered numerous claims of sexual harassment and which led to the resignation of former CEO Travis Kalanick. But the company has also been dealing with a lawsuit that accuses it of stealing trade secrets from Google spin-off Waymo, and emails revealing that it knowingly leased unsafe cars to drivers.
Despite the company's problems, not all of Uber's mutual fund investors marked down the value of their stakes in the company. Fidelity Investments maintained its estimate of the value of its Uber stock at $48.77 a share. And BlackRock actually raised its estimate to $53.88 a share, according to the report.
Mutual funds typically invest in public company stocks. But some 3.7% of mutual funds now have stakes in private companies like Uber as well, according to Morningstar. Funds estimate the value of their stakes in private companies in quarterly reports to their investors.