Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Rating Increased to Hold at Nomura Securities

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) was upgraded by investment analysts at Nomura Securities from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Zacks.com reports.

LYFT has been the topic of several other reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Lyft from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Susquehanna reduced their target price on Lyft from $18.00 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Lyft from $24.00 to $17.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Lyft from $19.00 to $13.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Lyft from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $15.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Twenty-five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lyft has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.87.

Lyft Trading Up 1.8 %

LYFT stock opened at $11.68 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $12.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Lyft has a fifty-two week low of $8.85 and a fifty-two week high of $20.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.85 and a beta of 2.06.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.05. Lyft had a negative net margin of 3.94% and a negative return on equity of 23.77%. The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.14) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 40.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Lyft will post -0.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Kristin Sverchek sold 3,000 shares of Lyft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.81, for a total value of $41,430.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 47,778 shares in the company, valued at $659,814.18. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, President Kristin Sverchek sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.81, for a total value of $41,430.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 47,778 shares in the company, valued at $659,814.18. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lisa Blackwood-Kapral sold 9,083 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.67, for a total transaction of $142,330.61. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 351,853 shares in the company, valued at $5,513,536.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,598 shares of company stock worth $469,611 in the last quarter. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lyft

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Lyft by 277.8% during the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,360 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. a16z Perennial Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Lyft in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new position in Lyft in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Lyft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. bought a new stake in Lyft during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. 83.07% of the stock is currently 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.