Morgan Stanley Increases Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Price Target to $22.50

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) had its price target boosted by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $20.50 to $22.50 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the ride-sharing company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective points to a potential upside of 3.31% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer set a $26.00 price objective on Lyft and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on Lyft from $21.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Lyft from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Lyft from $15.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Lyft from $21.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.02.

Lyft Stock Down 3.2%

NASDAQ LYFT opened at $21.78 on Monday. Lyft has a 52 week low of $9.66 and a 52 week high of $25.54. The firm has a market cap of $8.70 billion, a PE ratio of 57.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.99. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $21.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.30 by ($0.17). Lyft had a net margin of 2.40% and a return on equity of 18.29%. The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Lyft will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Lyft

In other Lyft news, CAO Stephen W. Hope sold 4,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.30, for a total transaction of $107,040.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 311,909 shares in the company, valued at $6,955,570.70. This represents a 1.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Lawee sold 6,578 shares of Lyft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.55, for a total transaction of $148,333.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 104,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,355,573. This trade represents a 5.92% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 202,049 shares of company stock valued at $4,470,738. 3.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lyft

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Amalgamated Bank raised its stake in shares of Lyft by 2.5% in the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 21,652 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $477,000 after acquiring an additional 534 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its holdings in Lyft by 23.2% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 3,399 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 639 shares during the period. CI Investments Inc. raised its position in Lyft by 39.1% in the 3rd quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 2,321 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 653 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its stake in shares of Lyft by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 167,399 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $3,684,000 after buying an additional 771 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lyft by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 35,372 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $779,000 after buying an additional 836 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Lyft Company Profile

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.