Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Given “Overweight” Rating at Piper Sandler

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by Piper Sandler in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently 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 price objective would indicate a potential upside of 33.63% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on LYFT. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Lyft from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Lyft from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price objective on shares of Lyft from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Benchmark raised shares of Lyft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Lyft from $16.50 to $18.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Twenty-seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.22.

Lyft Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of LYFT opened at $13.47 on Wednesday. Lyft has a 12 month low of $8.93 and a 12 month high of $20.82. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $13.92 and its 200-day moving average is $13.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.59 billion, a PE ratio of -84.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 2.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 1.19% and a negative return on equity of 1.58%. Equities research analysts forecast that Lyft will post 0.06 EPS for the current year.

Lyft declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, February 11th that permits the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the ride-sharing company to buy up to 8.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Lyft

In other Lyft news, Director Logan Green sold 10,919 shares of Lyft 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 sale, the director now directly owns 314,492 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,424,987. The trade was a 3.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 3.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lyft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in Lyft by 274.6% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,959,267 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $38,175,000 after purchasing an additional 2,169,255 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in Lyft in the fourth quarter valued at $5,332,000. Bridgewater Associates LP increased its stake in Lyft by 939.9% in the fourth quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 1,827,323 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $23,572,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,604 shares in the last quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC increased its stake in Lyft by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 16,023 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $207,000 after purchasing an additional 970 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd increased its stake in Lyft by 13.2% in the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 47,791 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $617,000 after purchasing an additional 5,588 shares in the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is owned by 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.