Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Price Target Increased to $18.00 by Analysts at Citigroup

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) had its target price hoisted by analysts at Citigroup from $15.00 to $18.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the ride-sharing company’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 1.24% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on LYFT. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Lyft from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Moffett Nathanson raised shares of Lyft from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Lyft from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Lyft from $15.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Lyft from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.52.

Lyft Price Performance

LYFT stock traded up $1.18 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $17.78. 38,894,665 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,607,240. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.98 and a beta of 2.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.58. Lyft has a 52 week low of $7.85 and a 52 week high of $20.82.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The ride-sharing company reported ($0.05) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by $0.14. Lyft had a negative return on equity of 54.80% and a negative net margin of 7.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Lyft will post -0.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lyft

In other Lyft news, President Kristin Sverchek sold 5,670 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.02, for a total transaction of $85,163.40. Following the sale, the president now owns 633,950 shares in the company, valued at $9,521,929. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Lyft news, President Kristin Sverchek sold 5,670 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.02, for a total transaction of $85,163.40. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 633,950 shares in the company, valued at $9,521,929. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 193,200 shares of Lyft stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.04, for a total transaction of $3,871,728.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 932,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,688,181.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 280,526 shares of company stock worth $5,358,031 in the last ninety days. 3.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its stake in Lyft by 5.1% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 31,886 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $336,000 after buying an additional 1,535 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. lifted its position in Lyft by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 49,200 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $519,000 after purchasing an additional 4,821 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Lyft by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,459,043 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $25,918,000 after purchasing an additional 27,928 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in Lyft by 16.9% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 66,727 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $703,000 after purchasing an additional 9,663 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in shares of Lyft by 87.6% in the third quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 24,270 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $256,000 after purchasing an additional 11,330 shares during the period. 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.