Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates Outperform Rating for Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $21.00 price objective on the ride-sharing company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 82.13% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. UBS Group cut their price objective 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. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Lyft from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Lyft from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Lyft from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Lyft from $20.00 to $17.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Twenty-six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lyft currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.03.

Lyft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LYFT opened at $11.53 on Monday. Lyft has a twelve month low of $8.93 and a twelve month high of $20.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 192.17, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 2.15. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $13.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.80.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.10). Lyft had a return on equity of 8.03% and a net margin of 0.39%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Lyft will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lyft announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, February 11th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the ride-sharing company to repurchase up to 8.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Lyft

In other news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 2,424 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,417,263.44. This represents a 0.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Logan Green sold 11,411 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.34, for a total transaction of $152,222.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 297,640 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,970,517.60. This represents a 3.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 15,407 shares of company stock valued at $203,778. Company insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LYFT. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Lyft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new stake in Lyft during the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Lyft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Lyft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Byrne Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Lyft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 83.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.