Lyft beat the street on revenue in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough to assuage investors who reacted to the ride-hailing company’s weak guidance for the first three months of 2023.

Lyft lowered expectations for revenue in the first quarter to $975 million. Analysts had expected the company to promise $1.09 billion in revenue. That guidance sent shares plummeting 25% in after-hours trading Thursday to $12.13.

Lyft reported Thursday $1.2 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, a 21% increase from the $969.9 million it generated in the same year-ago period. Revenue for all of 2022 reached $4.1 billion, a 28% year-over-year versus $3.2 billion in 2021.

Lyft’s revenue, active rider and revenue per active rider results beat analyst expectations, closing out the year with 20.36 million active riders and $57.72 in revenue per active rider, which is up 8.7% and 11.5% from last year.

Still, shareholders were more affected by the company guidance for the first quarter.

Lyft needed a win after its third quarter earnings report, when the company missed Wall Street estimates for revenue and active riders, causing its stock to tank 22%. Despite the beat, Lyft shares dropped 3.16% at market close, and are trading nearly 24% lower in after hours. 

Lyft’s net loss was $588.1 million in the fourth quarter, compared to $283.2 million the year prior. Lyft attributes much of that loss to $201.3 million of stock-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses.

The company also reported a loss of $29.5 million in employe severance and other employee costs, as well as $9.5 million in net stock-based compensation expense, as a result of layoffs in the fourth quarter. In November, Lyft cut 13% of its workforce in an attempt to reduce operating expenses. At the time, the company had estimated it would incur $27 million to $32 million due to the restructuring.

All of those losses compounded to bring Lyft to a full year net loss of $1.6 billion, which is up from $1.1 billion in 2021.

The company closed out the quarter with $1.8 billion in cash.

Lyft shares get crushed on weak guidance for first quarter by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/09/lyft-shares-get-crushed-on-weak-guidance-for-first-quarter/