Contrasting Lyft (LYFT) & The Competition

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) is one of 100 public companies in the “Ground Transportation” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Lyft to similar companies based on the strength of its valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Lyft and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lyft	42.32%	-1.20%	-0.36%
Lyft Competitors	7.29%	13.12%	4.25%

Volatility & Risk

Lyft has a beta of 1.95, meaning that its share price is 95% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lyft’s peers have a beta of 1.15, meaning that their average share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Lyft and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lyft	2	26	10	0	2.21
Lyft Competitors	1357	6502	8649	264	2.47

Lyft currently has a consensus price target of $19.23, indicating a potential upside of 15.72%. As a group, “Ground Transportation” companies have a potential upside of 16.42%. Given Lyft’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Lyft has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.1% of Lyft shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.5% of shares of all “Ground Transportation” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Lyft shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.5% of shares of all “Ground Transportation” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lyft and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lyft	$6.77 billion	$2.84 billion	2.42
Lyft Competitors	$8.78 billion	$911.04 million	0.52

Lyft’s peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Lyft. Lyft is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Lyft peers beat Lyft on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

Lyft Company Profile

Lyft, Inc. operates a peer-to-peer marketplace for on-demand ridesharing in the United States and Canada. It operates multimodal transportation networks that offer access to various transportation options through the Lyft platform and mobile-based applications. The company's platform provides a ridesharing marketplace, which connects drivers with riders; Express Drive, a car rental program for drivers; and a network of shared bikes and scooters in various cities to address the needs of riders for short trips. It also offers centralized tools and enterprise transportation solutions, such as concierge transportation solutions for organizations; Lyft Pink subscription plans; Lyft Pass commuter programs; first-mile and last-mile services; and university safe rides programs. The company was formerly known as Zimride, Inc. and changed its name to Lyft, Inc. in April 2013. Lyft, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.