Financial Analysis: Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) and Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART)

Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART) and Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Maplebear and Lyft’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Maplebear	13.37%	13.78%	10.51%
Lyft	0.39%	8.03%	0.98%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Maplebear and Lyft, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Maplebear	0	13	15	1	2.59
Lyft	0	26	10	1	2.32

Maplebear presently has a consensus price target of $50.52, suggesting a potential upside of 20.63%. Lyft has a consensus price target of $17.03, suggesting a potential upside of 36.37%. Given Lyft’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Lyft is more favorable than Maplebear.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

63.1% of Maplebear shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.1% of Lyft shares are owned by institutional investors. 36.0% of Maplebear shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of Lyft shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Maplebear has a beta of 1.34, suggesting that its share price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lyft has a beta of 2.15, suggesting that its share price is 115% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Maplebear and Lyft”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Maplebear	$3.38 billion	3.28	-$1.62 billion	$1.58	26.51
Lyft	$5.79 billion	0.90	$22.78 million	$0.06	208.17

Lyft has higher revenue and earnings than Maplebear. Maplebear is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lyft, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Maplebear beats Lyft on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Maplebear

Maplebear Inc., doing business as Instacart, engages in the provision of online grocery shopping services to households in North America. It sells and delivers grocery products, as well as pickup services through a mobile application and website. It also operates virtual convenience stores; and provides software-as-a-service solutions to retailers. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California.

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. It also offers centralized tools and enterprise transportation solutions, such as concierge transportation solutions for organizations; Lyft Pink subscription plans; Lyft Pass commuter programs; first-mile and last-mile services; and university safe rides programs. The company was formerly known as Zimride, Inc. and changed its name to Lyft, Inc. in April 2013. Lyft, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.