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Investing.com — Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) shares were higher in premarket U.S. trading on Wednesday despite losing a significant portion of these gains due to a significant error in its margin outlook.
Chief Financial Officer Erin Brewer revealed that the company had mistakenly announced an excessively high annual margin growth forecast. Brewer said that the margin projection for 2024 was actually for a more modest increase of 50 basis points, contrary to the previously stated expansion of 500 basis points.
But investors retained some positivity around the ride-sharing firm after it said its start to the current fiscal period paves the way for “our first full-year of positive free cash flow.”
In the fourth quarter, Lyft reported a net loss of $26.3 million compared with a net loss of $588.1 million a year earlier, while revenue came in at $1.22 billion. Active riders on its platform jumped 10% to 22.4 million.
For Q1, the ride-hailing company guided gross bookings of about $3.5B to $3.6B.
Looking ahead, the company predicted that rides would increase in the mid-teens year-over-year, with gross bookings growth expected to be slightly faster than rides growth year-over-year.
In the aftermath of the report, Morgan Stanley analysts raised their target price and estimates for Lyft.
“Near-term results better than expected, particularly on EBITDA, but looking into 2024 product innovation will matter as we continue to monitor for signs of durable differentiation vs peers,” they wrote.
“Raise ’24/’25 EBITDA by 6%/6%, PT to $12 (~10x EV/’25 EBITDA).”
Additional reporting by Senad Karaahmetovic
