Lyft (NYSE: LYFT) shares ended the trading day on September 26, down by 3.36% after the investment company UBS downgraded the stock, slashing their estimate by claiming that consumers prefer to use the services of its competitor in the space, Uber (NYSE: UBER).
Analyst Lloyd Walmsley reduced LYFT from ‘buy’ to ‘neutral’ and reduced the price target from $50 to $16, lowering the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for 2024 to $671 million, while the company expects its EBITDA in 2024 to reach $1 billion.
“Our reduced optimism is supported by UBS Evidence Lab driver survey and app data which indicates: drivers prefer Uber; Lyft is not drivers’ main app; and Uber has more app downloads and usage across driver and consumers compared to Lyft.”
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LYFT chart and analysis
LYFT has been trading in the $13.41 to $18.57 range in the last month, staying below all moving averages. The short-term and long-term trends are negative, while technical analysis shows a resistance zone from $15.70 to $15.98 and a support line at $12.40.
TipRanks analysts rate the shares a ‘moderate buy,’ with the average price in the next 12 months reaching $30.81, 127.88% higher than the current trading price of $13.52. Equally important, out of 25 Wall Street analysts covering the firm, 13 have a ‘buy’ rating, eleven a ‘hold,’ and one a ‘sell’ rating.
Bear note
The UBS bear note may further complicate the trading of LYFT as the stock was outperformed by 78% of companies in the Road & Rail industry.
Furthermore, a duopoly of Uber and Lyft might be hard to sustain when it comes to ride-hailing as customers could gravitate to only one platform, as the analyst pointed out.
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