Lyft’s weak revenue forecast knocks down shares

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The rideshare company’s outlook was in contrast to that of its larger rival Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) Inc, whose strong presence globally is helping it ride a boom in demand for ride-hailing services from travelers and office-goers.

Lyft’s bigger presence on the U.S. West Coast, a region that analysts have said was trailing the rest of the United States in its return to pre-COVID demand, could be hurting the recovery compared with Uber.

Company president John Zimmer said in an interview that the West Coast had “not fully” recovered but noted a “material improvement”.

Lyft forecast first-quarter revenue of about $975 million, which fell below analyst estimates of $1.09 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

“They are clearly struggling here … They need to evaluate their operations here,” said Tejas Dessai, an analyst at Global X ETFs.

Lyft forecast first-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a key measure of profitability that strips out some costs, of between $5 million and $15 million.

For the fourth quarter, Lyft reported an adjusted EBITDA of $126.7 million, excluding the $375 million it had set aside for increasing insurance reserves. Analysts had forecast $91.01 million.

“We wanted to ensure we strengthened our insurance reserve … the purpose of doing that is to ensure we don’t have that type of volatility going forward,” Zimmer said in an interview.

Active riders rose 8.7% to 20.36 million for the fourth quarter, Lyft said, above the FactSet estimate of 20.30 million.