Head-To-Head Survey: Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) & U-Haul (NYSE:UHAL)

U-Haul (NYSE:UHAL) and Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for U-Haul and Lyft, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
U-Haul	1	0	1	1	2.67
Lyft	4	21	12	0	2.22

U-Haul currently has a consensus price target of $85.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.12%. Lyft has a consensus price target of $19.43, suggesting a potential upside of 19.22%. Given Lyft’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Lyft is more favorable than U-Haul.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

3.6% of U-Haul shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.1% of Lyft shares are held by institutional investors. 43.8% of U-Haul shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Lyft shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares U-Haul and Lyft’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
U-Haul	1.05%	0.81%	0.30%
Lyft	43.82%	-2.09%	-0.54%

Volatility and Risk

U-Haul has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lyft has a beta of 1.8, indicating that its stock price is 80% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares U-Haul and Lyft”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
U-Haul	$6.04 billion	2.44	$83.13 million	$0.24	313.08
Lyft	$6.32 billion	0.98	$2.84 billion	$6.85	2.38

Lyft has higher revenue and earnings than U-Haul. Lyft is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than U-Haul, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Lyft beats U-Haul on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About U-Haul

AMERCO operates as a do-it-yourself moving and storage operator for household and commercial goods in the United States and Canada. The company’s Moving and Storage segment rents trucks, trailers, portable moving and storage units, specialty rental items, and self-storage spaces primarily to the household movers; and sells moving supplies, towing accessories, and propane. It also provides uhaul.com, an online marketplace that connects consumers to independent Moving Help service providers and independent self-storage affiliates; auto transport and tow dolly options to transport vehicles; and specialty boxes for dishes, computers, and sensitive electronic equipment, as well as tapes, security locks, and packing supplies. This segment rents its products and services through a network of approximately 2,065 company operated retail moving stores and 20,100 independent U-Haul dealers. As of March 31, 2020, it had a rental fleet of approximately 176,000 trucks, 127,000 trailers, and 41,000 towing devices; and 1,745 self-storage locations with approximately 774,000 rentable storage units. The company’s Property and Casualty Insurance segment offers loss adjusting and claims handling services. It also provides moving and storage protection packages, such as Safemove and Safetow packages, which offer moving and towing customers with a damage waiver, cargo protection, and medical and life insurance coverage; Safestor that protects storage customers from loss on their goods in storage; Safestor Mobile, which protects customers stored belongings; and Safemove Plus, which provides rental customers with a layer of primary liability protection. The company’s Life Insurance segment provides life and health insurance products primarily to the senior market through the direct writing and reinsuring of life insurance, medicare supplement, and annuity policies. AMERCO was founded in 1945 and is based in Reno, Nevada.

About Lyft

Lyft, Inc. operates a peer-to-peer marketplace for on-demand ridesharing in the United States and Canada. It operates multimodal transportation networks that offer access to various transportation options through the Lyft platform and mobile-based applications. The company's platform provides a ridesharing marketplace, which connects drivers with riders; Express Drive, a car rental program for drivers; and a network of shared bikes and scooters in various cities to address the needs of riders for short trips. It also offers centralized tools and enterprise transportation solutions, such as concierge transportation solutions for organizations; Lyft Pink subscription plans; Lyft Pass commuter programs; first-mile and last-mile services; and university safe rides programs. The company was formerly known as Zimride, Inc. and changed its name to Lyft, Inc. in April 2013. Lyft, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.