A traveler arriving at Los Angeles International Airport seeks land transportation on a statewide day of action to require taxi companies Uber and Lyft to follow California law and grant drivers “ basic employee rights ” in Los Angeles, California, U.S. , August 20, 2020.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Rideshare company Lyft reported fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday, surpassing Wall Street’s top and bottom line expectations, but was disappointed when it came to active riders.
Shares of the company were up more than 8% in non-business hours trading, thanks to lower sales and signs that the company is recovering somewhat from the pandemic.
Lyft is also still on track to turn EBITDA into profitability by the fourth quarter, with an opportunity that could be reached by the third quarter, CFO Brian Roberts said in the company’s earnings call.
Here are the key figures:
- Loss per share: 58 cents versus 72 cents expected in a Refinitiv analyst survey
- Revenue: $ 570 million vs. $ 563 million expected by Refinitiv
- Active riders: 12.55 million versus 13.2 million expected in a FactSet survey
- Yield per active rider: Expected $ 45.40 vs. $ 42.20 per FactSet
The company’s revenue and number of riders were up from the previous quarter’s results of $ 499.7 million and 12.51 million riders, suggesting that the company continues to recover from the Covid-19 headwinds. However, it is still significantly lower than the same quarter last year. For the full year, Lyft reported revenue of $ 2.4 billion, compared to $ 3.6 billion in fiscal 2019.
The company said demand was also negatively impacted by an increase in coronavirus cases and efforts to slow the spread of the virus towards the end of the quarter.
Roberts said in a statement that Lyft “expects a growth curve starting in the second quarter and strengthening in the second half of the year.”
Lyft reported a net loss of $ 458.2 million for the quarter, up from a net loss of $ 356 million in Q4 2019. The company said the fourth quarter loss of $ 138.1 million in stock-based compensation and related payroll tax costs. The company said its net loss margin for the quarter was 80.4%, up from 35% a year ago.
Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA loss was $ 150 million, up $ 19.3 million from a year ago. It beats the company’s most recent forecast for an adjusted EBITDA loss of less than $ 185 million. The company said its adjusted EBITDA loss margin for the fourth quarter was 26.3%, up from 12.9% a year ago.
Lyft also reported $ 2.3 billion in unlimited cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.
The company has failed to grow its additional segments in the same way that its main competitor, Uber, has done in the past year. In an effort to make up for the revenue lost in the coronavirus pandemic, Uber focused on its food and delivery segment, Uber Eats, and lost some of its travel-related segments.
Lyft has yet to grow a food delivery business. The company said last quarter it is in the process of expanding delivery and is consulting with restaurants and retailers.
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