A Third Straight Quarter in the Black, and a Buyback Five Times Larger Than the Last
DoorDash's FY2024 10-K closed the company's first full year of GAAP net income, with the fourth quarter's buyback going dormant after a single $222 million sprint in Q3. This Form 10-Q, covering the quarter ended March 31, 2025 and filed with the SEC in May 2025, confirms the profitability trend continued into a third consecutive quarter: net income attributable to DoorDash, Inc. common stockholders was $193 million, up from a $23 million loss in Q1 2024, and income from operations was $155 million, up from a $61 million loss a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA» grew 59% to $590 million from $371 million, and revenue grew 21% to $3,032 million from $2,513 million.
The bigger headline is capital allocation. In February 2025, DoorDash's board authorized a new share repurchase program of up to $5.0 billion - inclusive of the roughly $876 million still remaining under the $1.1 billion program authorized a year earlier, and 4.5 times the size of that prior authorization. Despite the new program taking effect during the quarter, DoorDash repurchased zero shares of Class A common stock in the three months ended March 31, 2025 - a continuation of the same on-again, off-again buyback pattern this site flagged across 2024 (near-zero in H1 2024, $222 million in Q3 2024, zero in Q4 2024), now extended into a fifth consecutive dormant quarter out of the last six.
The Prescription
DoorDash should explain the sizing logic behind a buyback authorization nearly five times larger than its predecessor, especially given the track record: across the six quarters since the $1.1 billion program was announced (Q1 2024 through Q1 2025), the company has actually spent money buying back stock in exactly one of them. A $5.0 billion authorization against that backdrop reads more as a large headline number than a signal of near-term capital return, and investors deserve to know whether the company expects to actually deploy a meaningful fraction of it or whether it exists primarily as dilution offset for equity compensation.
What it should stop doing: presenting each larger buyback authorization without any retrospective accounting of how the prior one performed. This filing discloses the new $5.0 billion program's size and its inclusion of the old program's unused balance, but nowhere assesses whether the $1.1 billion authorization - which spent only $224 million, or 20%, of its total before being folded into the new program - achieved what the board intended when it was announced in February 2024. A pattern of announcing progressively larger, progressively underused programs deserves acknowledgment, not a clean restart of the narrative each time.
Key Financial Metrics
Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024 - consolidated, reported in USD (DoorDash reports natively in USD, no FX conversion needed)
| Metric | Q1 2025 | Q1 2024 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $3,032M | $2,513M | ✅ +21% |
| Adjusted EBITDA» | $590M | $371M | ✅ +59% |
| Income (Loss) from Operations | $155M | $(61)M | ✅ turned positive |
| Net Income (Loss) attributable to common stockholders | $193M | $(23)M | ✅ turned positive |
| Free Cash Flow» | $494M | $487M | ✅ +1% |
Balance sheet: DoorDash's 10-Q compares quarter-end to the prior fiscal year-end, not the year-ago quarter, so the columns below are Mar 2025 vs. Dec 2024
| Balance sheet metric | Mar 2025 | Dec 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Assets | $13,572M | $12,845M | ✅ +6% |
| Total Liabilities | $5,177M | $5,035M | ⚠️ +3% |
| Total Stockholders' Equity | $8,389M | $7,803M | ✅ +8% |
Free Cash Flow was $494 million for the quarter, up only 1% from $487 million a year earlier - a far smaller increase than the 59% Adjusted EBITDA growth would suggest, since net cash provided by operating activities grew similarly modestly ($635 million versus $553 million). Total cash and marketable securities (cash and cash equivalents of $4,500 million plus short-term marketable securities of $1,317 million and long-term marketable securities of $842 million, excluding $322 million of funds held at payment processors and $214 million of combined restricted cash) stood at $6,659 million as of March 31, 2025, up from $6,176 million three months earlier despite zero buyback spending this quarter.
DoorDash posted its third consecutive quarter of GAAP profitability - net income of $193 million, up from a $23 million loss a year ago - with Adjusted EBITDA up 59% to $590 million, while the board authorized a new $5.0 billion buyback in February 2025, 4.5 times the size of the program it replaces, and then repurchased zero shares during the quarter.
Key Operational Metrics
Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024
| Metric | Q1 2025 | Q1 2024 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Orders | 732M | 620M | ✅ +18% |
| Marketplace GOV» | $23,076M | $19,239M | ✅ +20% |
| Contribution Profit» | $1,020M | $751M | ✅ +36% |
| Contribution Profit as a % of Marketplace GOV | 4.4% | 3.9% | ✅ +0.5pp |
| Net Revenue Margin (Revenue ÷ Marketplace GOV) | 13.1% | 13.1% | flat |
| GAAP Gross Profit | $1,478M | $1,129M | ✅ +31% |
Contribution Profit grew 36% year-over-year, well ahead of revenue's 21% growth, extending the margin-expansion trend this site has tracked in every quarter since Q1 2022. Contribution Margin (Contribution Profit as a percentage of revenue) reached roughly 34%, matching the high set last quarter. Net Revenue Margin held flat at 13.1% rather than expanding, the first quarter without sequential Net Revenue Margin improvement this site has recorded in some time. Total Orders growth held at 18%, matching last quarter's pace. DoorDash still does not disclose exact merchant, consumer, or Dasher headcounts, or an absolute DashPass subscriber count.
Beyond the Usual
A $5 Billion Buyback Authorization, 4.5x the Last One - and Zero Shares Bought
In February 2025, DoorDash's board authorized a new share repurchase program of up to $5.0 billion, explicitly inclusive of the roughly $876 million remaining unspent under the $1.1 billion program authorized in February 2024. This is DoorDash's fourth repurchase program, and by far its largest: $400 million (2022), $750 million (2023), $1.1 billion (2024), now $5.0 billion. Despite the new authorization being in place for the entire quarter, the company repurchased zero shares of Class A common stock during the three months ended March 31, 2025 - continuing a pattern where DoorDash has actually spent buyback dollars in only one of the last six quarters (Q3 2024's $222 million).
Free Cash Flow Growth Sharply Decoupled From Adjusted EBITDA Growth
Adjusted EBITDA grew 59% year-over-year this quarter, but Free Cash Flow grew only 1% ($494 million versus $487 million) - the widest gap between these two growth rates this site has recorded for DoorDash. Net cash provided by operating activities grew similarly modestly (15%, from $553 million to $635 million), suggesting the divergence stems from working-capital timing rather than any change in the FCF-to-operating-cash-flow conversion mechanics (capex and capitalized software combined were roughly flat). This is worth watching next quarter: if the gap persists, it would mark a real change in cash conversion rather than a one-quarter anomaly.
DoorDash's insurance collateral requirement held steady at $692 million outstanding, unchanged from December 31, 2024. The $800 million revolving credit facility remained fully undrawn, consistent with every period this site has tracked - DoorDash continues to carry no funded debt.
Stock Price Since Last Quarter
DoorDash's stock rose in the first quarter of 2025, from a December 31, 2024 close of $167.75 to a March 31, 2025 close of $182.77 - a 9% gain (DoorDash has not split its stock since its IPO, so these remain actual nominal prices). This extends the recovery that began in Q3 2024, marking a third consecutive quarterly gain. The stock remains about 11% below its end of Q3 2021 peak of $205.98, its closest approach to that peak since this site began tracking the gap.
Target Valuation Range
~6.3x TTM EV/Revenue, up from ~6.0x three months earlier. Verdict: too-early-to-call on a numeric fair-value range — the peer-multiple read below is the honest substitute (see the DCF-timing note further down). Bottom line: the valuation multiple expanded again this quarter as the stock price rose 9% while fundamentals kept improving, extending DoorDash's re-rating trend into its fourth consecutive quarter of multiple expansion.
With 398.68 million Class A and roughly 25.06 million Class B shares outstanding (423.74 million total, per the cover page as of April 30, 2025) and no funded debt:
| Market cap → enterprise value | Q1 2025 (period-end) |
|---|---|
| Share price (period-end, March 31, 2025 close) | $182.77 |
| Shares outstanding (Class A + B) | 423.74 million |
| Market capitalization | ~$77.5 billion |
| Less: cash and marketable securities | $6.66 billion |
| Funded debt | none |
| Enterprise value | ~$70.8 billion |
| Peer-multiple sanity check (TTM basis) | FY2024 (TTM) | Q1 2025 (TTM) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| TTM Revenue | $10,722M | $11,241M | ✅ up |
| TTM Adjusted EBITDA | $1,900M | $2,119M | ✅ up |
| Enterprise value | ~$64.3 billion | ~$70.8 billion | ✅ up |
| EV/Revenue» | ~6.0x | ~6.3x | ✅ up |
| EV/Adjusted EBITDA» | ~34x | ~33x | ⚠️ down slightly |
TTM Revenue is computed as FY2024 revenue minus Q1 2024 plus Q1 2025 ($10,722M − $2,513M + $3,032M = $11,241M); TTM Adjusted EBITDA the same way ($1,900M − $371M + $590M = $2,119M). Enterprise value rose 10% while TTM revenue grew 5% and TTM Adjusted EBITDA grew 12% - EV/Revenue expanded on the stock's 9% gain outpacing revenue growth, but EV/Adjusted EBITDA actually ticked down slightly since Adjusted EBITDA growth (12%) outpaced enterprise-value growth (10%) on this particular comparison, a small but genuine divergence from the otherwise-consistent expansion in both multiples over the past several quarters.
A full DCF still isn't attempted here: three consecutive quarters of GAAP profitability is a meaningfully longer track record than the single quarter available at the time of the Q3 2024 post, but the newly authorized $5.0 billion buyback (with zero dollars spent so far and a stated size that dwarfs the company's actual repurchase history) and this quarter's unexplained Free Cash Flow deceleration both argue for more data before committing to a multi-year model. The peer-multiple read remains the more honest tool, and it continues to show DoorDash trading at a richer valuation each quarter, now approaching its closest point to the September 2021 all-time-high stock price since this site began tracking the gap.
DoorDash, Inc.'s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, filed with the SEC in May 2025.