Stephen Hope Sells 5,460 Shares of Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Stock

Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) CAO Stephen Hope sold 5,460 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.76, for a total value of $75,129.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 335,463 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,615,970.88. The trade was a 1.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Lyft Price Performance

NASDAQ:LYFT traded up $0.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $14.11. The stock had a trading volume of 14,549,438 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,264,120. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $13.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $16.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.84. Lyft, Inc. has a one year low of $12.46 and a one year high of $25.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.58.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by ($0.26). The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Lyft had a negative return on equity of 2.09% and a net margin of 43.82%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.01 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Lyft, Inc. will post 0.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Lyft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, February 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the ride-sharing company to purchase up to 15.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lyft

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lyft by 16.4% during the first quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 61,042 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 8,600 shares during the period. Bull Harbor Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lyft during the first quarter valued at approximately $160,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd increased its stake in shares of Lyft by 51.6% during the first quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 7,662,027 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $101,905,000 after buying an additional 2,607,417 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Lyft by 22.8% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 449,299 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $5,976,000 after buying an additional 83,412 shares during the period. Finally, Readystate Asset Management LP increased its stake in shares of Lyft by 45.1% during the first quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP now owns 231,292 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $3,076,000 after buying an additional 71,892 shares during the period. 83.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on LYFT shares. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Lyft in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Lyft in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Wedbush decreased their price target on Lyft from $16.00 to $13.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Lyft from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Lyft from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.83.

About Lyft

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.