Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Upgraded to “Buy” at The Goldman Sachs Group

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) was upgraded by equities researchers at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $20.00 target price on the ride-sharing company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 20.19% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the company. Bank of America cut Lyft from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $10.50 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Lyft from $18.00 to $15.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Lyft in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $15.00 price objective on shares of Lyft in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Lyft from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Lyft has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.47.

Lyft Trading Up 28.0 %

LYFT stock opened at $16.64 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $11.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $13.59. Lyft has a one year low of $8.93 and a one year high of $19.07. The company has a market capitalization of $6.96 billion, a PE ratio of 277.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 2.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.76.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.19). The company had revenue of $1.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.47 billion. Lyft had a return on equity of 8.03% and a net margin of 0.39%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.15 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Lyft will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lyft announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, February 11th that permits the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the ride-sharing company to purchase up to 8.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lyft

In other Lyft news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 2,424 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.52, for a total value of $30,348.48. Following the transaction, the director now owns 911,922 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,417,263.44. This represents a 0.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Lindsay Catherine Llewellyn sold 22,736 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.45, for a total transaction of $283,063.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 959,697 shares in the company, valued at $11,948,227.65. This trade represents a 2.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,143 shares of company stock valued at $486,841. 3.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lyft

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its holdings in Lyft by 44.2% in the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 46,776 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $555,000 after buying an additional 14,330 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Lyft by 5.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,049,250 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $451,645,000 after acquiring an additional 2,046,639 shares during the last quarter. Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Lyft during the first quarter worth $1,160,000. Maxi Investments CY Ltd raised its stake in Lyft by 320.4% during the 1st quarter. Maxi Investments CY Ltd now owns 945,933 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $11,228,000 after purchasing an additional 720,933 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Levin Capital Strategies L.P. bought a new stake in Lyft in the 1st quarter valued at $119,000. 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.