Lyft Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:LYFT)

Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors bought 65,096 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 24% compared to the average daily volume of 52,308 call options.

Insider Activity at Lyft

In related news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 2,424 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.52, for a total value of $30,348.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 911,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,417,263.44. This represents a 0.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 3.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LYFT. Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Lyft in the third quarter worth about $90,604,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in Lyft by 282.0% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 8,623,227 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $111,240,000 after acquiring an additional 6,365,727 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in Lyft by 828.5% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,662,535 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $85,947,000 after acquiring an additional 5,945,000 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP raised its position in Lyft by 156.9% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 8,025,099 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $103,524,000 after acquiring an additional 4,901,358 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Lyft in the fourth quarter worth about $49,599,000. Institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Lyft Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ LYFT opened at $13.02 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 217.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 2.16. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $13.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $13.68. Lyft has a 1 year low of $8.93 and a 1 year high of $20.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.75.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.10). Lyft had a net margin of 0.39% and a return on equity of 8.03%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Lyft will post 0.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lyft announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, February 11th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the ride-sharing company to reacquire up to 8.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on LYFT. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $18.00 price objective (down previously from $23.00) on shares of Lyft in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Lyft from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Lyft from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Wedbush dropped their price target on shares of Lyft from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Lyft from $16.50 to $18.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Twenty-six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lyft has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.22.

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.