Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Price Target Raised to $18.00

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) had its price target raised by Morgan Stanley from $17.00 to $18.00 in a research note released on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the ride-sharing company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on Lyft from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Lyft in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $23.00 target price on shares of Lyft in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research lowered Lyft from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, William Blair downgraded Lyft to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lyft presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.43.

Lyft Stock Performance

Shares of LYFT opened at $15.86 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $14.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.63. Lyft has a 52-week low of $12.46 and a 52-week high of $25.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market capitalization of $6.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.80.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by ($0.26). Lyft had a net margin of 43.82% and a negative return on equity of 2.09%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.01 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Lyft will post 0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Lyft

In other news, insider Lindsay Catherine Llewellyn sold 11,491 shares of Lyft stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total transaction of $172,365.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 853,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,805,965. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Erin Brewer sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.59, for a total transaction of $203,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 705,979 shares in the company, valued at $9,594,254.61. This represents a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 45,535 shares of company stock valued at $637,456. 0.92% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Strs Ohio raised its holdings in shares of Lyft by 4,527.6% in the fourth quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 440,405 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $8,531,000 after acquiring an additional 430,888 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Lyft by 36.6% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,289,671 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $30,453,000 after acquiring an additional 613,494 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Lyft by 58.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,720,478 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $89,360,000 after buying an additional 2,467,010 shares in the last quarter. West Tower Group LLC grew its stake in Lyft by 207.6% in the 1st quarter. West Tower Group LLC now owns 138,432 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $1,841,000 after acquiring an additional 93,432 shares during the period. Finally, OP Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Lyft in the 1st quarter worth approximately $992,000. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Lyft Company Profile

Lyft, Inc (NASDAQ: LYFT) operates a peer-to-peer ridesharing platform that connects passengers with drivers through a mobile application. Since its founding in 2012, the company has expanded beyond traditional ride-hailing to include bike and electric scooter rentals, while also offering rental cars and public transit options in select markets. Lyft’s platform uses GPS mapping and dynamic pricing algorithms to optimize driver-passenger matches and route efficiency.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Lyft primarily serves urban and suburban markets across the United States and Canada.