Air travelers walk toward a Lyft pickup area at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles on Aug. 20, 2020.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Lyft shares initially soared in prolonged trading on Tuesday but pulled way back after the corporate’s finance chief acknowledged on an earnings call that the discharge included a serious error.
Here’s how the corporate did in comparison with estimates from analysts based on LSEG, formerly often called Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: 18 cents adjusted vs. 8 cents expected
- Revenue: $1.22 billion vs. $1.22 billion expected
Lyft Chief Financial Officer Erin Brewer said on the earnings call that the corporate had misstated its margin expansion within the press release. Slightly than 500 basis points, or 5%, of growth for 2024, as the corporate initially indicated, the actual increase will likely be 50 basis points, or 0.5%, Brewer said.
“This is definitely a correction for the press release,” Brewer said.
The adjusted profit margin as a percentage of bookings will likely be 2.1%, up from 1.6% in 2023, Brewer added.
Lyft’s stock soared greater than 60% minutes after the earnings release hit and is now up about 16%. The swift drop represents a market cap decline of well over $2 billion for a corporation that closed the day valued at lower than $5 billion.
Revenue increased 4% from $1.175 billion a 12 months earlier, Lyft said.
Gross bookings for the primary quarter will likely be $3.5 billion to $3.6 billion, topping analyst estimates of $3.46 billion, based on StreetAccount.
“Given these aspects, together with our plans for barely lower capital expenditures for 2024 relative to 2023, we anticipate that Lyft will generate positive Free Money Flow for the full-year for the primary time,” Lyft said.
The corporate has struggled since its IPO in 2019, because it’s bled money to pay for drivers and compete with larger rival Uber. Even with Tuesday’s after-hours pop, the stock remains to be greater than 80% off its debut price.
CEO David Risher, who took the helm in March of last 12 months, said the corporate reached a record variety of annual riders. The variety of rides increased 26% from a 12 months earlier to 191 million within the fourth quarter, and energetic ricers rose 10% to 22.4 million.
Gross bookings for the 12 months increased 14% to $13.8 billion, while bookings for the quarter rose 17% to $3.7 billion.
Prior to Tuesday’s report, Lyft shares were down 19% to start out 2024. Uber shares are up 12%.
WATCH: Can gig firms utilize ads to realize sustained profitability?
![Can gig companies utilize ads to achieve sustained profitability?](https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107373073-17078506941707850691-33320545473-1080pnbcnews.jpg?v=1707850693&w=750&h=422&vtcrop=y)