Uber investors may shrug off $5 billion loss

Even by the standards of Uber Technologies, $5 billion is a lot to lose in three months of doing business. Yet, that’s the amount analysts expect to see for the second quarter.

An average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows an anticipated net loss of $5.27 billion. Most of that total, about $3.5 billion, is expected to stem from stock-based compensation tied to the initial public offering, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. It’s a routine cost for newly public companies—though Uber’s is much larger due to the company’s size—and investors are likely to forgive it as a one-off.

The challenge for Uber is to show that it is, indeed, an anomaly and not a symbol of a larger problem. The company will get that chance when it releases quarterly financial information Thursday afternoon.