Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT)

Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors acquired 129,866 call options on the company. This is an increase of 99% compared to the typical volume of 65,212 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LYFT. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Lyft from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Lyft from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $12.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Lyft from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Lyft from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Lyft from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lyft currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.60.

Lyft Stock Down 2.9 %

LYFT stock traded down $0.49 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $16.22. The company had a trading volume of 6,600,354 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,681,344. Lyft has a 1 year low of $7.85 and a 1 year 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 company has a market capitalization of $6.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -18.36 and a beta of 1.98. The company has a 50 day moving average of $17.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $13.99.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last released 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 company had revenue of $1.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that Lyft will post -0.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lyft news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 15,724 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 1,204,071 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,083,283.21. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Lyft news, President Kristin Sverchek sold 5,670 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.02, for a total value of $85,163.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 633,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,521,929. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 15,724 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.51, for a total transaction of $275,327.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,204,071 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,083,283.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 270,526 shares of company stock valued at $5,195,771. Company insiders own 3.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in Lyft in the 1st quarter valued at $41,000. TB Alternative Assets Ltd. grew its stake in Lyft by 62.1% in the 1st quarter. TB Alternative Assets Ltd. now owns 529,300 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $10,242,000 after buying an additional 202,700 shares during the last quarter. Range Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Lyft in the 1st quarter valued at $470,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Lyft by 42.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,213 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 664 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in Lyft in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Lyft Company 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.