Morgan Stanley Cuts Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) Price Target to $15.00

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) had its target price decreased by Morgan Stanley from $17.00 to $15.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the ride-sharing company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on LYFT. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Lyft from $18.00 to $15.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Lyft from $18.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Lyft from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Bank of America lowered shares of Lyft from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $10.50 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Lyft in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-seven have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Lyft currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $16.45.

Lyft Trading Up 3.0 %

Lyft stock opened at $11.16 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $4.66 billion, a PE ratio of 186.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 2.13. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $13.66. Lyft has a 12 month low of $8.93 and a 12 month high of $19.07.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last released its quarterly earnings data 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%. Analysts anticipate that Lyft will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Lyft

In other news, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 2,424 shares of the firm’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 directly owns 911,922 shares in the company, valued at $11,417,263.44. This trade represents a 0.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Logan Green sold 11,411 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 297,640 shares in the company, valued at $3,970,517.60. This represents a 3.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,407 shares of company stock worth $203,778 over the last three months. Insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lyft

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Lyft during the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Lyft by 10.4% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,047 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock valued at $321,000 after buying an additional 2,554 shares during the period. Byrne Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Lyft by 1,368.2% in the first quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 39,641 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $471,000 after acquiring an additional 36,941 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of Lyft by 70.6% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 146,038 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock worth $1,733,000 after acquiring an additional 60,438 shares during the period. Finally, NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lyft in the first quarter valued at $121,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

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.