Lyft more than doubles sales in ‘exceptional’ quarter, but stock gains disappear after forecast

Executives said Lyft had 17.1 million active riders in the second quarter, 3.6 million more than the previous quarter and higher than the average analyst projection of 15.5 million, according to FactSet. In an additional sign of an economic recovery, the San Francisco-based company saw increased traffic at airports — more than double that from January and up nearly quadruple year over year, its executives said.

“We beat our outlook across every metric and we have growing momentum,”
Logan Green, the ride-hailing giant’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a news release. On the earnings call, Green attributed reaching the adjusted-profitability milestone to adjustments the company made to its business during the pandemic.

After falling 1.1% in the regular session to close at $55.38, Lyft shares rose as much as 6% in after-hours trading, but pared most of those gains after its third-quarter forecast was shared in its earnings call. Shares of competitor Uber Technologies Inc. UBER, -1.61% also rose nearly 3% in extended trading but gave back much of those gains.

Lyft said it expects third-quarter revenue of $850 million to $860 million, while analysts on average had forecast revenue of $869.1 million. Chief Financial Officer Brian Roberts said on the call that the company expects prices for rides to be lower, but that Lyft will continue to invest in incentives to attract and retain drivers.

The company is expecting the expiration of additional federal unemployment benefits in September, plus a continued increase in vaccinations, to also help with driver supply, its top executives said.

Roberts said on the call that the company is keeping an eye on developments around the COVID-19 delta variant, but that “despite recent growth in COVID case counts, July was our best month since March 2020.”

“Investors will be focused on any early signals that the delta variant is negatively impacting demand, but it sounds quite positive thus far” with rides volume increasing, said Tom White, an analyst with D.A. Davidson.

Lyft reported a net loss of $251.9 million, or 76 cents a share, compared with a loss of $437.1 million, or $1.41 a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for stock-based compensation and other costs, the company’s loss was $18 million, or 5 cents a share. Revenue more than doubled to $765 million from $339.3 million in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast a loss of 24 cents a share on revenue of $700 million.

John Zimmer, co-founder and president of Lyft, talked about the company’s announcement of a deal with Ford Motor Co. F, +0.79% and Argo AI last month on a self-driving network that will offer passengers rides in Miami this year and Austin beginning next year.

“The path to commercialization of self-driving vehicles at scale is through the Lyft network,” he said on the call.

Lyft stock is up nearly 11% year to date, and has increased about 79% in the past year. By comparison, the S&P 500 Index SPX, +0.82% has risen 17% so far this year, and is up about 33% in the past 52 weeks.