By Natalie Lung, Bloomberg
Shares of Lyft Inc. fell by the most in a year after the rideshare firm issued a disappointing forecast that missed Wall Street expectations, a sign that its global expansion and new product offerings are not performing as quickly and as well as anticipated.
First-quarter adjusted Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, will come in between $120 million and $140 million, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Wall Street was expecting $140.5 million. Fourth-quarter revenue also came in below expectations, rising 3% to $1.59 billion. Analysts had been looking for $1.76 billion.
Lyft attributed the shortfall to a $168 million impact from settlements related to legacy driver classification matters, a spokesperson said Tuesday. Gross bookings for the current period will be $4.86 billion to $5 billion, in line with analyst estimates. The company also authorized a new share buyback program of $1 billion.
Shares of Lyft fell as much as 16% after markets opened on Wednesday, their worst intraday decline since February 2025. The stock was already down 13% so far this year through Tuesday’s close.
Lyft’s weak outlook follows a similarly mixed report from much-larger rival Uber Technologies Inc. last week, both of which now suggest the rideshare companies’ efforts to expand beyond their core US businesses aren’t yet yielding the profits that Wall Street has been seeking. For some bears, the aggressive expansion of Waymo’s network continues to spell uncertainty for Uber and Lyft, whose partnerships with robotaxi companies will take years to grow and become profitable.
“While underlying fundamentals were solid, the profitability guide leaves us wanting more detail to bridge the gap versus expectations, particularly given continued momentum in riders and bookings,” Evercore ISI analysts wrote in a note on Wednesday, maintaining their in-line rating on Lyft’s stock.
Lyft’s results might also disappoint some investors who have been looking for clues on whether reduced insurance costs in California will translate to lower pricing and therefore increased demand. The company added Tuesday that “broad-based consumer adoption will take time to materialize and we now anticipate this being back-half weighed.”
Despite the downbeat forecast, Lyft executives were upbeat.
“2025 was an incredible year in Lyft’s comeback story,” said Chief Executive Officer David Risher in a statement Tuesday. “As we look ahead, we are entering a transformational phase for Lyft – 2026 will be the year of the AV with deployments in the US and overseas,” he added, referring to autonomous-vehicle partnerships like those planned with Waymo in Nashville and Baidu Inc. in the UK.
Erin Brewer, Lyft’s chief financial officer, said the company’s “disciplined operational excellence” positions it for “further momentum” and that it remains “right on track” to hit its long-term financial goals.
The muted guidance overshadowed healthier bookings in the holiday period.
Lyft’s gross bookings grew 19% to $5.1 billion in the holiday period, beating analysts’ expectations for $5.06 billion. That represents the biggest jump since early 2024. This was also the first full quarter that accounted for business from Freenow, the European taxi app Lyft acquired last year.
During the period, Lyft’s senior rider base nearly doubled as it expanded its Lyft Silver product, a simplified version of its app that targets elderly users. The product has now been used for hundreds of thousands of rides, according to Lyft. The company is also rolling out a new service for teenagers to ride without adults.
The company has also leaned further into partnerships strategy to lure in more customers. In November, it started letting United Airlines Holdings Inc. fliers earn miles by taking Lyft rides. Lyft also said it will introduce higher-value ride types such as black cars and chaffered rides through its recent acquisition of TBR Global Chauffeuring. The firm expects gross bookings growth to continue to outpace rides growth through the first half of the year, it said in the statement.
(Updates with share move starting in the first paragraph, more detail in the third paragraph and analyst comment in the sixth paragraph.)
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