Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Stock Price

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) had its target price lifted by Morgan Stanley from $19.00 to $20.50 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the ride-sharing company’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on LYFT. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on shares of Lyft from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. TD Cowen raised shares of Lyft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $16.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Lyft from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Lyft in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, Tigress Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective (up previously from $26.00) on shares of Lyft in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.07.

Lyft Stock Down 3.4%

LYFT stock opened at $18.32 on Thursday. Lyft has a 52 week low of $9.66 and a 52 week high of $19.35. The company has a market capitalization of $7.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 2.33. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $15.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.17). Lyft had a return on equity of 14.32% and a net margin of 1.51%.The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.24 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Lyft will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Lindsay Catherine Llewellyn sold 28,356 shares of Lyft stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.85, for a total transaction of $449,442.60. Following the transaction, the insider owned 850,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,478,649.80. This trade represents a 3.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Erin Brewer sold 15,000 shares of Lyft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.24, for a total transaction of $228,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 540,759 shares in the company, valued at $8,241,167.16. The trade was a 2.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 59,821 shares of company stock valued at $960,566. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LYFT. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Lyft by 144.9% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 24,009,925 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $378,396,000 after purchasing an additional 14,205,143 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Lyft in the first quarter valued at about $130,434,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its position in shares of Lyft by 828.5% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,662,535 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $85,947,000 after acquiring an additional 5,945,000 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Lyft by 26.3% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 24,849,205 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $294,978,000 after purchasing an additional 5,178,118 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP lifted its position in Lyft by 156.9% during the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 8,025,099 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $103,524,000 after purchasing an additional 4,901,358 shares during the period. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.