Piper Sandler Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $18.00 price objective on the ride-sharing company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $23.00. Piper Sandler’s target price indicates a potential upside of 34.87% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Benchmark upgraded shares of Lyft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Lyft from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Lyft from $19.00 to $15.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Lyft from $11.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Lyft from $10.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Twenty-seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.47.

Lyft Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LYFT opened at $13.35 on Wednesday. Lyft has a 52-week low of $8.93 and a 52-week high of $20.82. The business’s fifty day moving average is $14.00 and its 200 day moving average is $13.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market cap of $5.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -80.90, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 2.16.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.10 earnings per share (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 predict that Lyft will post 0.06 EPS for the current year.

Lyft declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase 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 typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lyft news, Director Logan Green sold 10,919 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.25, for a total value of $188,352.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 314,492 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,424,987. This represents a 3.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lyft by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,002,611 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $464,434,000 after acquiring an additional 984,907 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Lyft by 0.4% in 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 during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 2,302,248 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in Lyft by 27.2% during the third 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 during the period. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its holdings in shares of Lyft by 3.8% during 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 in the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.