Traders Purchase Large Volume of Lyft Call Options (NASDAQ:LYFT)

Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Investors acquired 129,866 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 99% compared to the typical volume of 65,212 call options.

Insider Activity at Lyft

In related news, President Kristin Sverchek sold 3,500 shares of Lyft stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.51, for a total transaction of $61,285.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 96,978 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,698,084.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 15,724 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.51, for a total value of $275,327.24. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,204,071 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,083,283.21. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Kristin Sverchek sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.51, for a total transaction of $61,285.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 96,978 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,698,084.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 270,526 shares of company stock worth $5,195,771 in the last 90 days. 3.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LYFT. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Lyft by 42.7% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,488,609 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $36,770,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,719 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Lyft by 21.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,425,740 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $46,647,000 after buying an additional 778,563 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Lyft by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,457,522 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $331,562,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135,036 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lyft during the 3rd quarter worth $1,224,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in shares of Lyft by 123.4% during the 3rd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,208,700 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $12,740,000 after purchasing an additional 667,600 shares in the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on LYFT. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $15.00 price target (up previously from $14.00) on shares of Lyft in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Lyft from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Nomura lowered shares of Lyft from a “neutral” rating to a “reduce” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $11.70 to $13.00 in a report on Friday, December 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Lyft from $17.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Lyft from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.60.

Lyft Stock Down 3.4 %

NASDAQ:LYFT opened at $16.15 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $6.46 billion, a PE ratio of -18.15 and a beta of 1.98. Lyft has a twelve month low of $7.85 and a twelve month high of $20.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. The company’s 50 day moving average is $17.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.03.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The ride-sharing company reported ($0.05) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by $0.14. The business had revenue of $1.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. Lyft had a negative net margin of 7.73% and a negative return on equity of 54.80%. Analysts anticipate that Lyft will post -0.35 EPS for the current year.

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.