Lyft: “I’m the captain now!”

Uber: “Calm down, little man…” 

In today's news, (as I’m crying over another friggin slump in the market today), Lyft has officially broken a new record: It’s turned a profit! Yes, yes, I know… unthinkable right? The company that’s been playing the annoying kid brother role to Uber has officially grown up, put some hair on it’s chest, and brought home dat bag babay! 

(Source: Giphy)

The historic feat this beautiful Wednesday, started as Lyft clocked in a dazzling net income of $5 million. What? Only $5 million? Hey, I didn’t say a large profit… I said “a profit”. It’s still a win, especially as this follows years of red ink, including the -$114.3 million net loss the company incurred back in Q2 of 2023. 

(Source: Share Wise)

Which is why, in addition to the revenue win of $1.436 billion, (a robust 41% jump from the previous year), this profit growth had CEO David Risher practically doing a victory lap, declaring, “For over a year you've heard us say that customer obsession drives profitable growth. In Q2 we delivered.” Kudos to you Dave, you actually did the job you were hired to do, congrats!

(Source: Giphy) 

With that said though, it wasn’t just the bottom line that had Lyft hyped up on Mountain Dew - Lyft also saw a record number of active riders, hitting 23.7 million as total rides reached a company high of 205 million.

(Source: Benzinga) 

Now of course, while that sounds like a large sum, when you compare that to Uber’s 149 million in active riders… Well, it’s clear that even though Lyft hit a record, they still have some catching up to do when it comes to market share.

That’s why, despite the profit parade, Lyft's stock actually ended up taking a nosedive dropping -16.5% in today’s trading. The reason for the Debbie Downer reaction? Well, Lyft’s future outlook looks about as sketchy as my Mercedes Benz driving Pastor telling the congregation “he’s not in it for the money”. 

(Source: Barrons)

For instance, the company’s guidance for the next quarter was, let’s say less than inspiring. Lyft projected gross bookings of $4 billion to $4.1 billion, falling short of analysts’ expectations of $4.15 billion. And while they’re forecasting an adjusted EBITDA of $90 million to $95 million, that’s still shy of the $103 million analysts had in mind.

(Source: Giphy) 

Again, this brings us back to Uber and its recent quarter results. Because, while Lyft is busy counting pennies as it celebrates earning “4 cents per share” on revenue of $1.43 billion, Uber’s stock has jumped (+12.26% YTD) on the backs of adjusted EBITA hitting $1.6 billion (up 71% year-over-year) and gross bookings growing 19% year-over year.

(Source: Investing.com) 

Plus, now that Mr. Innovation himself, Elon Musk, is throwing Tesla into the ridesharing mix with his “I promise, just you wait, it’s going to be big” Robotaxi claims, Lyft is going to have to prove to investors that they aren’t just a one hit wonder.

“How bout ‘dem Cowboys! Amirite? (Source: Reddit)

So in the end, let’s all raise our glasses for Lyft as it not only achieves a first-ever profit milestone, but proves to everyone that a company can indeed operate in the black (sometimes). Now only time will tell if Lyft can maintain its newfound financial footing or not, but it’s clear that the competition is only heating up from here. 

(Source: Business Insider) 

Will the company seal its place as a dominant contender? Or will Uber continue to shove Lyft in the back seat? We shall see my friends, we shall certainly see. 

At the time of this writing Lyft closed red on the day, down -17.31% (down -34.20% YTD) - * Cue the Reddit “Buy The F**ing Dip’ Brigade in 3… 2…1…* 

Stocks.News holds positions in Uber and Tesla as mentioned in the article.