HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 4,486 Shares of Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT)

HighTower Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) by 9.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 43,597 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock after selling 4,486 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Lyft were worth $562,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lyft during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,370,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in shares of Lyft by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 71,914 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $928,000 after buying an additional 4,246 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC boosted its stake in Lyft by 37.6% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 30,928 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $399,000 after buying an additional 8,448 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in Lyft by 50.9% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 54,434 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $727,000 after buying an additional 18,371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in Lyft by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 110,669 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $1,428,000 after acquiring an additional 2,631 shares during the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LYFT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Lyft from $19.00 to $15.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Lyft from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. DA Davidson reduced their target price on shares of Lyft from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Lyft in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Lyft in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Twenty-seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.03.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Logan Green sold 11,411 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.34, for a total value of $152,222.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 297,640 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,970,517.60. The trade was a 3.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 2,424 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.52, for a total value of $30,348.48. Following the sale, the director now owns 911,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,417,263.44. This represents a 0.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,407 shares of company stock valued at $203,778 over the last three months. 3.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Lyft Stock Down 4.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ LYFT opened at $11.57 on Friday. Lyft, Inc. has a 52-week low of $8.93 and a 52-week high of $19.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 192.83, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 2.15. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $12.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.82. 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 earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.10). Lyft had a return on equity of 8.03% and a net margin of 0.39%. Sell-side analysts expect that Lyft, Inc. will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Lyft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback 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 usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.