Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Stock Price

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) had its price objective lifted by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $16.50 to $18.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the ride-sharing company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 1.81% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Lyft in a report on Friday, October 18th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on Lyft from $18.00 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Lyft from $18.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Lyft in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Lyft from $15.00 to $11.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Twenty-eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.00.

Lyft Stock Performance

NASDAQ LYFT traded up $3.28 on Thursday, reaching $17.68. 57,644,090 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,982,723. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $12.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $13.50. The firm has a market cap of $7.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -109.88 and a beta of 2.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. Lyft has a fifty-two week low of $8.93 and a fifty-two week high of $20.82.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.05. Lyft had a negative return on equity of 8.57% and a negative net margin of 1.27%. The business 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 posted ($0.14) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 40.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Lyft will post -0.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 2,424 shares of Lyft stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.32, for a total value of $27,439.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 929,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,523,502.16. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 2,424 shares of Lyft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.32, for a total value of $27,439.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 929,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,523,502.16. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Lindsay Catherine Llewellyn sold 4,243 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.00, for a total value of $50,916.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 760,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,121,068. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 32,664 shares of company stock worth $380,048 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lyft by 4.4% during the second quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 23,460 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $330,000 after buying an additional 993 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Lyft by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 13,894 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $196,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Lyft by 6.1% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,854 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $350,000 after purchasing an additional 1,437 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Lyft by 26.4% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,968 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $98,000 after purchasing an additional 1,457 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Lyft by 0.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 185,280 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $2,612,000 after purchasing an additional 1,477 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.