Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Lowered to Buy Rating by Wall Street Zen

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) was downgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on LYFT. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on Lyft from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Lyft from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Lyft from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Lyft from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Lyft in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lyft presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.07.

Lyft Stock Performance

Shares of LYFT opened at $18.62 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $15.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $14.22. The stock has a market cap of $7.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.59, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 2.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.70. Lyft has a one year low of $9.66 and a one year high of $19.35.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Lyft

In other Lyft news, insider Lindsay Catherine Llewellyn sold 28,356 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.85, for a total value of $449,442.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 850,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,478,649.80. The trade was a 3.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO John David Risher purchased 5,926 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $16.88 per share, with a total value of $100,030.88. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 11,797,266 shares in the company, valued at $199,137,850.08. This represents a 0.05% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 59,821 shares of company stock worth $960,566 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lyft

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. American Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Lyft in the second quarter worth $195,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans bought a new position in Lyft in the 2nd quarter worth $942,000. Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its holdings in Lyft by 101.0% in the 2nd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 49,121 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $774,000 after acquiring an additional 24,680 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in Lyft during the 2nd quarter worth $445,000. Finally, FORA Capital LLC bought a new stake in Lyft during the second quarter valued at about $2,407,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Lyft Company Profile

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.