Lyft Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:LYFT)

Key Points

• Lyft saw unusually heavy options activity on Friday, with traders buying 36,754 put options, about 25% above the average volume.
• Insider selling continued, including CFO Erin Brewer’s sale of 15,000 shares and director Jill Beggs’ sale of 2,093 shares; insiders sold 69,196 shares over the last 90 days.
• Wall Street remains cautious on LYFT, with a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $19.23, even as some firms raised or cut their targets and Lyft recently missed EPS expectations despite revenue growth.

Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Traders acquired 36,754 put options on the company. This is an increase of 25% compared to the average volume of 29,367 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lyft news, CFO Erin Brewer sold 15,000 shares of Lyft stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.59, for a total transaction of $203,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 705,979 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,594,254.61. The trade was a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Jill Beggs sold 2,093 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.76, for a total transaction of $28,799.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 30,092 shares in the company, valued at approximately $414,065.92. This represents a 6.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 69,196 shares of company stock valued at $992,371 over the last 90 days. 0.92% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LYFT. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lyft by 7.4% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 25,783,363 shares of the ride-sharing company's stock valued at $567,492,000 after buying an additional 1,773,438 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in Lyft by 15.4% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 9,873,232 shares of the ride-sharing company's stock worth $191,245,000 after acquiring an additional 1,320,938 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd increased its stake in Lyft by 51.6% during the 1st quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 7,662,027 shares of the ride-sharing company's stock worth $101,905,000 after acquiring an additional 2,607,417 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Lyft by 58.0% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,720,478 shares of the ride-sharing company's stock valued at $89,360,000 after acquiring an additional 2,467,010 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Lyft in the 4th quarter valued at $109,987,000. 83.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Lyft Stock Performance

Shares of LYFT stock traded up $0.40 on Friday, hitting $14.47. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,965,298 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,838,017. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.58. The stock's 50 day moving average is $14.02 and its 200-day moving average is $15.42. Lyft has a fifty-two week low of $12.46 and a fifty-two week high of $25.54. The company has a market capitalization of $5.50 billion, a PE ratio of 2.12, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.82.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.30 by ($0.26). The business had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Lyft had a negative return on equity of 2.09% and a net margin of 43.82%.Lyft's revenue was up 17.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.01 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Lyft will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on LYFT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Lyft from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Lyft from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Tigress Financial restated a "buy" rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of Lyft in a research report on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Lyft in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. They set an "underperform" rating for the company. Finally, William Blair cut Lyft to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $19.23.

Lyft Company Profile

Lyft, Inc NASDAQ: LYFT operates a peer-to-peer ridesharing platform that connects passengers with drivers through a mobile application. Since its founding in 2012, the company has expanded beyond traditional ride-hailing to include bike and electric scooter rentals, while also offering rental cars and public transit options in select markets. Lyft's platform uses GPS mapping and dynamic pricing algorithms to optimize driver-passenger matches and route efficiency.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Lyft primarily serves urban and suburban markets across the United States and Canada.

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