Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Shares Gap Down to $16.92

Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $16.92, but opened at $16.50. Lyft shares last traded at $16.60, with a volume of 2,435,604 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on LYFT. Royal Bank of Canada raised Lyft from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $17.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Lyft from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Barclays raised their price objective on Lyft from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Lyft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $12.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on Lyft from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lyft has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.60.

Lyft Stock Performance

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $14.20. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The ride-sharing company reported ($0.05) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by $0.14. The company had revenue of $1.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. Lyft had a negative return on equity of 54.80% and a negative net margin of 7.73%. Research analysts anticipate that Lyft, Inc. will post -0.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Kristin Sverchek sold 5,670 shares of Lyft stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $9,521,929. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Logan Green sold 11,867 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.69, for a total transaction of $186,193.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 346,341 shares in the company, valued at $5,434,090.29. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, President Kristin Sverchek sold 5,670 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.02, for a total value of $85,163.40. Following the transaction, the president now owns 633,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,521,929. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 270,526 shares of company stock worth $5,195,771. 3.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lyft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LYFT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Lyft during the fourth quarter worth about $94,687,000. Kodai Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Lyft during the fourth quarter worth about $26,069,000. Bank of Nova Scotia purchased a new position in Lyft during the fourth quarter worth about $21,433,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Lyft by 3.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,457,522 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $331,562,000 after buying an additional 1,135,036 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in shares of Lyft by 126.0% in the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,937,357 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $29,041,000 after purchasing an additional 1,080,009 shares in the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.