LYFT Shares Up 7.5% after Posting Better-than-Expected Q2 2022 Earnings

UTC by Godfrey Benjamin · 3 min read
LYFT Shares Up 7.5% after Posting Better-than-Expected Q2 2022 Earnings
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With the current outlook of the global industry, Lyft is giving a conservative projection for its future earnings as it is anticipating the full year of 2022 revenue growth that will be slower than the 36% achieved in 2021.

American ride-hailing giant LYFT Inc (NASDAQ: LYFT) has posted a better-than-expected earnings performance for its second quarter as it saw good growth leaps across the board. The company saw a change in its bottom line as consumer rides returned to pre-pandemic levels as well as travels which pushed many to request rides.

The company posted Q2 revenue of $990.7 million, up 13% from the $875.6 million it posted in the year-ago period. The revenue hit was also notably better than its Q1 figures which came in at $765 million. Despite this revenue hit, Lyft recorded a net loss in both the quarterly comparison as well as on a year-over-year basis.

By the numbers, the net loss came in at $377.2 million this quarter versus $251.9 million in Q2 2021 and $196.9 million in the first quarter of this year. While the company’s reported loss was huge in the second quarter, it highlighted how it was able to prevent a catastrophic plunge in this performance metric with the massive inflationary growth and general global economic uncertainty.

While Lyft said it was able to implement some viable cost-cutting measures, the excessive loss figure was attributed to stock-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses. Another key highlight for Lyft in the second quarter is its EBITDA, a metric that excludes stock-based compensation and some other costs. The company’s EBITDA came in at $79.1 million, which largely surpasses the $18.66 million that was projected by analysts profiled by Refinitiv.

The posted performance report has ignited a new interest amongst Lyft’s investors and has printed a significant upshoot in the company’s shares. After closing Thursday’s trading session up 4.07% to $17.39 at the time of writing, a more bullish momentum was carved out in the Pre-Market with a 7.53% surge to $18.70.

Lyft Conservative Earnings Projections

With the current outlook of the global industry, Lyft is giving a conservative projection for its future earnings as it is anticipating the full year of 2022 revenue growth that will be slower than the 36% achieved in 2021.

“We expect Q3 revenues of between $1.040 billion and $1.060 billion, which implies growth of between 5% and 7% versus Q2, and growth of 20% and 23% versus Q3 last year,” said Elaine Paul, Lyft’s Chief Financial Officer.

In a bid to better its books, the company looks to carve out creative means to offset the offset some of its macro-economic headwinds which include among many things the growing insurance costs which come up through rising inflation.

“We believe that over time, we can offset higher insurance costs through both pricing and also product and engineering efforts that deliver better per-ride unit economics and that continue advancing the safety of our network,” said Paul.

Competitor, Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE: UBER) also released its Q2 reports earlier this week, and the firm despite benefiting from growth in rides, recorded a loss of $2.6 billion.

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