By Emily Dattilo

DoorDash stock was rising in early trading Wednesday after its earnings impressed Wall Street.

The food-delivery company posted results after the bell on Tuesday, which Raymond James analysts distilled into four words: efficiency, reinvestment, scale, and repeat.

The team led by Josh Beck increased its target price for the stock to $215 from $170 and maintained an Outperform rating on the company.

DoorDash stock gained 3% to $198.88 in early trading Wednesday.

For its fourth quarter of 2024, the company reported diluted earnings of 33 cents a share, missing Wall Street's call for 34 cents, according to FactSet. Revenue of $2.87 billion was above the consensus estimate for $2.84 billion.

"In 2024, as in all years, one of our goals was to create greater efficiency through improved order-level execution and scale, and then invest much of that back into improving and expanding our products and services in order to increase our future impact and profit potential," DoorDash said in the earnings release.

Total orders increased 19% from the year-ago quarter to $685 million, higher than analysts' estimate of $674.8 million.

Marketplace GOV -- defined as the total dollar value of orders complete -- flew 21% to $21.28 billion, while analysts had anticipated $20.93 billion.

"DASH completed its third consecutive year of >20% bookings growth post pandemic, highlighting the company's durable growth," Needham analysts led by Bernie McTernan wrote. The team increased its price target to $225 from $180 and reiterated a Buy rating.

For the first quarter of 2025, the company expects marketplace GOV between $22.6 billion and $23 billion, while analysts had penciled in $22.43 billion.

William Blair analysts led by Ralph Schackart, who rate shares at Outperform, believe the future is bright for the company.

"Given the continued strong growth, scaling margins, and share gains, we believe DoorDash will continue to execute, assuming digital channels continue to take broader market share," they wrote.

Write to Emily Dattilo at emily.dattilo@dowjones.com

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February 12, 2025 09:47 ET (14:47 GMT)

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