On Wednesday, a day after the ride-hailing company reported results Lyft Inc. U.S. shares fell sharply, including a 125% increase in revenue amid continued recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but softer than expected guidance.
After up 6% in extended trading on Tuesday, Lyft LYFT,
-9.48%
Shares fell more than 9% to $50.39 on Wednesday afternoon. They are on pace for their worst day since April 29, when they fell 9.94%.
The company continues to deal with the effects of the pandemic, which Chief Financial Officer Brian Roberts said on the earnings call was “not over yet, particularly with the return of restrictions in emerging variants and certain markets.”
Lyft expects to continue to spend on incentives to get drivers back on its platform and/or retain them, with Roberts saying they see a $30 million to $40 million hit on revenue in the third quarter from those incentives. are supposed to.
“Comments about driver incentive investments going forward may scare some investors that the intensity could remain high until next year,” Brad Erickson of RBC Capital Markets wrote in a note to investors.
But he also reiterated his “outperform” rating on the stock, saying investors should be thinking longer: “We believe these forces are purely transitory and would urge investors to look next year where we expect.” are that Lyft will be on a path toward hundreds of millions of dollars of EBITDA.”
Mark Mahane of Evercore ISI, who also reiterated the outperform rating, wrote that “challenges remain, service levels (ie ride availability, wait times and ride pricing) are still not optimal. And we believe that organic tailwinds ( Vaccines, full re-openings, work and school commutes, airport trips, etc…) until a full re-engagement, Lyft in driver incentives for another quarter or two to rebalance the market Gotta bow down aggressively.”
A further reading of the results warns about the development. While the company reported that second-quarter revenue ($765 million) more than doubled year over year, that was compared to the quarter that included the height of the pandemic last year. That figure was down about 12% from the company’s second-quarter revenue of $867.3 million in 2019.
“User growth is already showing signs of slowing growth if engagement growth (rides/users) or pricing power fails to dampen LYFT’s revenue outlook,” wrote Mark Schmulik of Bernstein Stock. on the “Market Performance” rating. .
Analysts’ mention of the company’s first-quarter EBITDA profitability and continued profitability expectations attribute it to adjustments Lyft made during the pandemic.
“Lyft used this slowdown to improve its cost structure and tap into new business opportunities,” wrote Brian White of Monness Crespi Hardt.
