Lyft’s (LYFT) Overweight Rating Reiterated at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reiterated their overweight rating on shares of Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) in a research report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $18.00 price target on the ride-sharing company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $23.00.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Lyft from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Lyft from $10.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Lyft from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price target on shares of Lyft from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on Lyft from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lyft has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.31.

Lyft Stock Down 7.9 %

LYFT opened at $13.25 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $14.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $13.52. Lyft has a 1-year low of $8.93 and a 1-year high of $20.82.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last announced 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 negative return on equity of 1.58% and a negative net margin of 1.19%. Research analysts anticipate that Lyft will post 0.06 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lyft news, Director Logan Green sold 10,919 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.25, for a total value of $188,352.75. Following the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LYFT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 984,907 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 80,675 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lyft by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 9,408,466 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $121,369,000 after buying an additional 2,302,248 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lyft by 27.2% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 8,114,166 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $103,456,000 after buying an additional 1,735,208 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA grew its position in shares of Lyft by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 6,491,590 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $82,768,000 after buying an additional 235,510 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

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.