Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Given New $18.00 Price Target at BMO Capital Markets

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) had its target price increased by BMO Capital Markets from $15.00 to $18.00 in a research note published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has a market perform rating on the ride-sharing company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on LYFT. Barclays upped their price objective on Lyft from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Argus upgraded shares of Lyft from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $20.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Lyft from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $12.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Lyft from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised Lyft from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating and lifted their price target for the company from $17.00 to $23.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Lyft currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $16.70.

Lyft Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LYFT traded down $0.54 on Wednesday, reaching $17.24. 12,924,053 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,567,121. Lyft has a fifty-two week low of $7.85 and a fifty-two week high of $20.82. The business’s 50-day moving average is $17.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -36.87 and a beta of 2.05.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The ride-sharing company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.14. Lyft had a negative net margin of 7.73% and a negative return on equity of 54.80%. The firm had revenue of $1.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Lyft will post -0.35 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Kristin Sverchek sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was 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 directly owns 60,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,063,615. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, President Kristin Sverchek sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was 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 directly owns 60,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,063,615. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 15,724 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.51, for a total value of $275,327.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,204,071 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,083,283.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 280,526 shares of company stock worth $5,358,031. 3.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lyft

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Lyft during the fourth quarter valued at $94,687,000. Kodai Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Lyft in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,069,000. Bank of Nova Scotia purchased a new position in shares of Lyft during the 4th quarter valued at $21,433,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lyft by 3.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,457,522 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $331,562,000 after acquiring an additional 1,135,036 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in Lyft by 126.0% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,937,357 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $29,041,000 after purchasing an additional 1,080,009 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

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.