Lyft Q4 earnings preview: Ridesharing costs to blur bottom-line

Lyft Inc. (NASDAQ: LYFT) is slated to report its fourth-quarter 2019 earnings results on Tuesday, February 11, after the market closes. The bottom line will continue to be hurt by costs related to the investments in the ridesharing marketplace as well as insurance costs.

The top line will be beneficial by the price rises, increased take rates and market share gains from rivals and traditional taxis despite cheap price strategy for customer acquisition. The majority of the revenue will be generated through its ridesharing marketplace that connects drivers and riders.

Costs turned out to be the regular rider of Lyft, which the company has been struggling to keep at bay. The company has been striving to lift prices for the ridesharing for cashing in from the strong customer base. But, Lyft faces immense competition in the industry that could turn fatal of losing the customers.

During January end, the company has been reportedly planning for corporate restructuring that would include job cuts. Lyft is expected to unveil its restructuring plan during the quarterly results or at the call. Investors believe that the company has been trying hard to become profitable and restructuring could make way for achieving that.

The company continues to invest in the future both organically and through acquisitions of complementary businesses. The expansion of the scooter network remained the main focus of the company after the purchase of Bikeshare Holdings LLC, or Motivate, in late 2018. Lyft also continues to invest in autonomous vehicle technology, which is possibly a critical part of the future of transportation.

Read: Ford Q4 earnings review

Analysts expect the company to post a loss of $1.36 per share on revenue of $984.17 million. Investors expect Lyft to report a narrower-than-expected loss for the fourth quarter. In the previous third-quarter, the company has exceeded the estimates as the bottom line was narrower than the analysts’ expectations.

For the third quarter, Lyft posted a narrower loss helped by higher revenue. Active riders increased by 28% to 22.3 million and revenue per active rider grew by 27% to $42.82. For the fourth quarter, the company sees revenue to grow by 46-47% to a range of $975-985 million. For the full year 2019, Lyft predicts revenue to grow by around 66% to the range of $3.57-3.58 billion.

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