AQR Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Lyft, Inc. $LYFT

Key Points

• AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Lyft, Inc. by 103.3%, acquiring nearly 10 million shares, valued at approximately $110.6 million.
• A significant number of hedge funds adjusted their positions in Lyft this quarter, with Advisors Asset Management raising its stake by 71.7% and several others actively buying shares, leading to over 83% of Lyft's stock being owned by institutional investors.
• Analyst ratings for Lyft have varied, with several firms upgrading their ratings recently; Lyft currently holds an average rating of "Hold" and a price target of $16.83.

AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT - Free Report) by 103.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,804,782 shares of the ride-sharing company's stock after purchasing an additional 4,980,876 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC owned 2.35% of Lyft worth $110,598,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Lyft by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,049,250 shares of the ride-sharing company's stock worth $451,645,000 after purchasing an additional 2,046,639 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Lyft by 26.3% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 24,849,205 shares of the ride-sharing company's stock valued at $294,978,000 after acquiring an additional 5,178,118 shares during the period. Rakuten Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Lyft in the 1st quarter valued at $130,434,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Lyft by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 9,338,222 shares of the ride-sharing company's stock valued at $120,463,000 after acquiring an additional 1,224,056 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP increased its position in shares of Lyft by 156.9% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 8,025,099 shares of the ride-sharing company's stock valued at $103,524,000 after acquiring an additional 4,901,358 shares during the period. 83.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on LYFT. Roth Capital raised Lyft from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $19.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their target price on Lyft from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Susquehanna cut their price target on Lyft from $18.00 to $14.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 11th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and set a $16.00 price target (up from $15.00) on shares of Lyft in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their target price on Lyft from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lyft has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $16.87.

Lyft Price Performance

LYFT traded up $0.57 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $18.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 12,592,507 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,298,680. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $15.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.11. Lyft, Inc. has a 1 year low of $9.66 and a 1 year high of $19.35. The company has a market cap of $7.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.74, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 2.33.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.17). Lyft had a return on equity of 14.32% and a net margin of 1.51%.The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.61 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.24 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Lyft, Inc. will post 0.22 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lyft news, CFO Erin Brewer sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.24, for a total value of $228,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 540,759 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,241,167.16. This trade represents a 2.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO John David Risher bought 5,926 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $16.88 per share, for a total transaction of $100,030.88. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,797,266 shares in the company, valued at approximately $199,137,850.08. This represents a 0.05% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 59,821 shares of company stock valued at $960,566 in the last ninety days. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Lyft Profile

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.