Due to exaggerating the profit growth prospects for 2024 tenfold, Lyft's stock price surged over 60% on Tuesday and then fell sharply.
On February 13th local time, American ride hailing company Lyft released its 2023 financial report. The company stated in its financial report that the adjusted profit margin for 2024 will increase by 500 basis points, or 5 percentage points, compared to the previous year.
Within minutes of the announcement, Lyft's stock price soared to $19.70, breaking through its highest point since August 2022.
Subsequently, Lyft CFO Erin Brewer corrected during the company conference call that the expected profit margin increase for 2024 is actually 50 basis points, or 0.5 percentage points later. The stock price subsequently fell sharply, and as of the close of the US stock market on Tuesday, Lyft's stock price fell 2.18% to $12.13 per share, with a total market value of $4.767 billion.
The company spokesperson later added that this error was a "typo" and stated that the company has corrected this error in subsequent documents submitted.
However, Lyft's financial performance in the fourth quarter still exceeded expectations. According to the financial report, Lyft's fourth quarter revenue was $1.22 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4%, with analysts expecting $1.22 billion; Adjusted EBITDA is $66.6 million, while analysts expect it to be $56 million; The total booking amount is 3.72 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 17%, and analysts expect it to be 3.67 billion US dollars.
Lyft predicts that the total bookings for the first quarter of 2024 will be between $3.5 billion and $3.6 billion, with adjusted EBITDA between $50 million and $55 million, and analysts expect it to be $49.5 million. Lyft stated that it is expected to achieve full year positive free cash flow for the first time in 2024.
Some analysts believe that this mistake has exacerbated the predicament of Lyft's stock price for many years, with the company's stock price dropping by about 80% since its initial public offering in 2019.
Lyft is working hard to challenge its competitor Uber, and in less than a year of his tenure as Uber CEO, David Risher, he has led the company to begin achieving returns.
Before Tuesday's financial report was released, Lyft's stock price had already fallen by 19% in 2024, while Uber's stock price had risen by 12%.
Uber announced its first-ever annual profit last week. In addition, the company stated that the total booking volume in the fourth quarter of 2023 increased by 22% compared to the previous year, reaching $37.6 billion, which is almost ten times the booking volume of Lyft during the same period.
In contrast, Lyft is still operating at a loss, with its financial report showing a net loss of $340 million for the full year of 2023, which is significantly narrower than the $1.6 billion loss for the full year of 2022.
In Wednesday's pre market trading, Lyft regained some of its gains. As of press release, Lyft's US stock market opened up more than 23%.