Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Hold” Rating for Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)‘s stock had its “hold” rating restated by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports.

LYFT has been the topic of several other research reports. Roth Mkm increased their price objective on Lyft from $13.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Lyft from $16.50 to $18.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Lyft from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Lyft from $10.50 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Lyft from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Twenty-seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.22.

Lyft Stock Up 1.7 %

LYFT opened at $13.47 on Wednesday. Lyft has a 1-year low of $8.93 and a 1-year high of $20.82. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $13.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market cap of $5.59 billion, a PE ratio of -84.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 2.16.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.10). Lyft had a negative net margin of 1.19% and a negative return on equity of 1.58%. As a group, research analysts expect that Lyft will post 0.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Lyft declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, February 11th that permits the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the ride-sharing company to repurchase up to 8.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lyft

In other news, Director Logan Green sold 10,919 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.25, for a total transaction of $188,352.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 314,492 shares in the company, valued at $5,424,987. This trade represents a 3.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lyft

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Lyft by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,002,611 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $464,434,000 after acquiring an additional 984,907 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Lyft by 0.4% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 18,052,879 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $230,174,000 after acquiring an additional 80,675 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Lyft by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 9,408,466 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $121,369,000 after acquiring an additional 2,302,248 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Lyft by 282.0% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 8,623,227 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $111,240,000 after acquiring an additional 6,365,727 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Lyft by 27.2% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 8,114,166 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $103,456,000 after acquiring an additional 1,735,208 shares during the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.