Citigroup Increases Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Price Target to $18.00

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) had its price objective upped by Citigroup from $15.00 to $18.00 in a research note released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the ride-sharing company’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on LYFT. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Lyft from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $12.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Lyft from $15.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research note on Wednesday. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Lyft from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a hold rating on shares of Lyft in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their target price on Lyft from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $16.70.

Lyft Stock Down 3.0 %

NASDAQ LYFT traded down $0.54 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $17.24. 12,924,053 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,567,121. Lyft has a 12 month low of $7.85 and a 12 month high of $20.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.62. The company has a market capitalization of $6.89 billion, a P/E ratio of -36.68 and a beta of 2.05.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The ride-sharing company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by $0.14. The business had revenue of $1.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. Lyft had a negative net margin of 7.73% and a negative return on equity of 54.80%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Lyft will post -0.35 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lyft

In other Lyft news, CAO Lisa Blackwood-Kapral sold 18,065 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.06, for a total transaction of $290,123.90. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 255,817 shares in the company, valued at $4,108,421.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Lyft news, CAO Lisa Blackwood-Kapral sold 18,065 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.06, for a total value of $290,123.90. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 255,817 shares in the company, valued at $4,108,421.02. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Kristin Sverchek sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.50, for a total transaction of $61,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 60,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,063,615. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 280,526 shares of company stock valued at $5,358,031. 3.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Lyft by 0.7% during the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 322,221 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $6,235,000 after acquiring an additional 2,374 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Lyft during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,145,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Lyft by 55.2% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 23,417 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $453,000 after buying an additional 8,328 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Lyft during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,328,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Lyft by 55.3% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 98,676 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $1,909,000 after purchasing an additional 35,146 shares during the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.