Lyft (LYFT) posted a surprise second-quarter profit as the ride-hailing company reported a better-than-expected 41% growth in revenue. But Lyft shares fell Wednesday on weaker-than-expected bookings and a disappointing outlook for the current quarter.
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Lyft said Wednesday morning that it earned 1 cent per share on revenue of $1.436 billion in the quarter ended June. That was Lyft’s first quarterly profit ever under generally accepted accounting principles. Analysts had forecast the San Francisco-based company would post a loss of 3 cents per share on revenue of $1.4 billion, according to FactSet.
A year earlier, Lyft had lost 30 cents per share on revenue of $1 billion in the second quarter of 2023.
“For more than a year, we’ve heard that customer obsession drives profitable growth,” Chief Executive David Risher said in a press release. “In Q2, we delivered, and drivers and riders are choosing Lyft in record numbers.”
Lyft bookings are disappointing
While Lyft’s revenue beat expectations, the company missed on gross bookings, or the total value of transactions booked through Lyft. Gross bookings rose 17% to $4.02 billion for the quarter ended June, slightly below estimates of $4.07 billion.
For the current quarter, Lyft forecast gross bookings of $4 billion – $4.1 billion. Analysts had predicted that Lyft would amount to $4.15 billion in bookings for the quarter ending in September, according to FactSet.
On the stock market, Lyft shares fell 16.5% today to 9.15, the lowest point in 2024.
Lyft’s Bigger Rival Uber (UBER) also gave a lower-than-expected bookings forecast when it reported results Tuesday. But Uber’s adjusted earnings forecast was above expectations. Uber shares rose 10% in trading Tuesday.
However, Lyft also lowered its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, forecast. The company said it expected EBITDA of between $90 million and $95 million for the September quarter, compared with forecasts of $103 million.
Lyft shares surge on Uber’s Q2 results
On Tuesday, Lyft shares rose 3.8% to 10.97. Shares rose after Uber reported better-than-expected Q2 results early Tuesday. Still, Lyft shares are down 26% year to date through Tuesday. The stock has fallen amid concerns about Tesla launching its own robotaxi service and growing fears of a U.S. recession.
The report states that Lyft stocks had an IBD Composite Rating of 45 out of 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup. The score combines five separate proprietary ratings into one rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
Additionally, Lyft’s IBD Relative Strength Rating was 16 out of 99. The RS rating means that Lyft has outperformed only 15% of all stocks in IBD’s database over the past year.
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