1. Monness Crespi Hardt: "Basking in the Uber glow"
Price target: None
Rating: Neutral
Lyft is "basking in the Uber glow," wrote Brian White of Monness Crespi Hardt in a note Monday, following Uber's rosy earnings that also lifted Lyft's shares. Still, Uber's report last week raised the bar for Lyft, he said.
"Although Lyft's stock has proven a disappointment since its IPO, the company has executed well on its quarterly results as a public company and we believe Lyft's focused strategy is not a competitive advantage," he said.
2. Deutsche Bank: "Reflecting less confidence"
Price target: $58 (from $70)
Rating: Buy
Deutsche Bank lowered its target price for Lyft "reflecting less confidence in the outlook over the medium term given a changing competitive posture in terms of its pricing," wrote analyst Lloyd Walmsley in a Thursday note.
He maintained his buy rating on the stock, but said that the bank continues "to see Uber as a better long-term story" given its market share, food delivery business, global addressable market, and minority investments abroad.
"We think there is room for two players and the market and both can see more rapid moves toward profitability," he wrote.
3. Guggenheim: "Lyft is taking a different approach"
Price target: $60
Rating: Buy
It's feasible that Lyft could match Uber's fourth-quarter 2020 target, as it has a "substantially smaller Ebitda loss," wrote Jake Fuller of Guggenheim Securities in a Monday note.
He continued: "That said, a comparison of incremental margin, along with commentary from both Lyft and Uber on recent promotional activity, might suggest that Lyft is taking a different approach."
In short, Fuller wrote that Lyft does not have to match Uber's fourth-quarter 2020 objective "in order for the stock to work."
It's acceptable for Lyft "to tilt strategically more towards growth and market share, as long as it is still on track and progressing towards Ebitda positive at some point in 2021," he wrote.
4. Wedbush: "Still plenty of opportunities"
Price target: $75
Rating: Outperform
"We continue to believe the key to Lyft's future earnings power, path to profitability, and future of ride share as a percentage of miles driven is growth in each year's cohort's usage over time," wrote Daniel Ives of Wedbush in an earnings preview note at the end of January.
He continued: "To this point, we think there is still plenty of opportunities to do so as it is taking the right steps by focusing on multimodal methods of transportation, one car ride and one bike/scooter ride counts as two rides and ultimately also gaining more market share during peak ride periods domestically."
5. RBC Capital Markets: "Great chance of upside vs. downside"
Price target: $82
Rating: Outperform
RBC Capital Markets sees Wall Street estimates for Lyft to be "reasonable, with a greater chance of upside vs. downside variance, in part due to what we perceive to be improved industry conditions," wrote Mark Mahaney in a Friday note.
He believes that Lyft will benefit "from a pure play on US Ridesharing," and that the company is focused on disciplined investments and products that will continue to drive adoption.
