Lyft Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:LYFT)

Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 65,096 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 24% compared to the typical daily volume of 52,308 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 2,424 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 911,922 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,417,263.44. This represents a 0.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LYFT. Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Lyft in the 3rd quarter valued at $90,604,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Lyft by 282.0% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 8,623,227 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $111,240,000 after acquiring an additional 6,365,727 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its position in Lyft by 828.5% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,662,535 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $85,947,000 after purchasing an additional 5,945,000 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP raised its holdings in Lyft by 156.9% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 8,025,099 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $103,524,000 after purchasing an additional 4,901,358 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Lyft during the 4th quarter valued at about $49,599,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Lyft Stock Up 2.6 %

LYFT opened at $13.36 on Friday. Lyft has a twelve month low of $8.93 and a twelve month high of $20.82. The firm has a market cap of $5.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 222.58, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 2.16. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $13.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.71. 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 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Lyft will post 0.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lyft declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, February 11th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the ride-sharing company to reacquire up to 8.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LYFT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Lyft in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Roth Mkm upped their target price on Lyft from $13.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on shares of Lyft from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Lyft from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Lyft from $16.50 to $18.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Twenty-six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.22.

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.