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

Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Traders bought 129,866 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 99% compared to the average daily volume of 65,212 call options.

Lyft Stock Performance

LYFT opened at $16.15 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $17.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.03. Lyft has a 1 year low of $7.85 and a 1 year high of $20.82. The company has a market capitalization of $6.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.15 and a beta of 1.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Lyft

In other Lyft news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 193,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.04, for a total value of $3,871,728.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 932,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,688,181.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Lyft news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 193,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.04, for a total value of $3,871,728.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 932,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,688,181.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Kristin Sverchek sold 5,670 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.02, for a total value of $85,163.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 633,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,521,929. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 270,526 shares of company stock valued at $5,195,771 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 3.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lyft by 4.1% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 13,303 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $510,000 after acquiring an additional 530 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lyft by 42.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,213 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 664 shares during the period. Commerce Bank boosted its stake in shares of Lyft by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 27,633 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $414,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the period. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of Lyft by 21.8% in the fourth quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 4,556 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 814 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lyft by 12.9% in the first quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 8,005 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $308,000 after buying an additional 914 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on LYFT. Nomura cut Lyft from a “neutral” rating to a “reduce” rating and raised their price target for the company from $11.70 to $13.00 in a report on Friday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Lyft from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Lyft from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Lyft from $17.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised Lyft from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $17.00 to $23.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lyft currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.60.

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.