DA Davidson Reiterates “Neutral” Rating for Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at DA Davidson in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $15.00 price objective on the ride-sharing company’s stock. DA Davidson’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 34.41% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on LYFT. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Lyft in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Lyft from $20.00 to $17.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. UBS Group lowered 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. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Lyft in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price target on shares of Lyft from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-seven have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Lyft currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.45.

Lyft Price Performance

NASDAQ LYFT opened at $11.16 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Lyft has a 12 month low of $8.93 and a 12 month high of $19.07. The stock has a market cap of $4.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 186.00, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 2.13. The company’s 50 day moving average is $12.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $13.66.

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

Lyft declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, February 11th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the ride-sharing company to buy up to 8.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lyft

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

Institutional Trading of Lyft

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in Lyft by 282.0% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 8,623,227 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $111,240,000 after purchasing an additional 6,365,727 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its position in shares of Lyft by 828.5% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,662,535 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $85,947,000 after buying an additional 5,945,000 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP increased its stake in shares of Lyft by 156.9% during the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 8,025,099 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $103,524,000 after buying an additional 4,901,358 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Lyft in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,599,000. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Lyft by 32.4% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 9,408,466 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $121,369,000 after acquiring an additional 2,302,248 shares during the period. 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.