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

Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 83,415 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 80% compared to the typical daily volume of 46,249 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lyft news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 2,424 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.52, for a total transaction of $30,348.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 911,922 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,417,263.44. The trade was a 0.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Logan Green sold 11,411 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.34, for a total value of $152,222.74. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 297,640 shares in the company, valued at $3,970,517.60. This trade represents a 3.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,407 shares of company stock valued at $203,778 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LYFT. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Lyft by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 24,493 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $316,000 after buying an additional 903 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Lyft by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 28,454 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $363,000 after acquiring an additional 969 shares during the period. Guggenheim Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lyft by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 16,023 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $207,000 after purchasing an additional 970 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd increased its position in shares of Lyft by 2.5% during the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 42,203 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $538,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of Lyft by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 41,539 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $536,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045 shares in the last quarter. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LYFT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Lyft in a research note on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Lyft from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Citigroup restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Lyft in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Lyft from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Roth Capital restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Lyft in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Twenty-six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.03.

Lyft Price Performance

NASDAQ LYFT opened at $12.49 on Wednesday. Lyft has a fifty-two week low of $8.93 and a fifty-two week high of $20.37. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $13.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $13.82. The firm has a market cap of $5.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 208.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 2.15. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.10). Lyft had a return on equity of 8.03% and a net margin of 0.39%. On average, analysts anticipate that Lyft will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lyft announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, February 11th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the ride-sharing company to purchase up to 8.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.