Lyft reported second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, easily beating on both the top and bottom lines. The company also beat Wall Street expectations for active riders.
Lyft stock was up around 1% in after-hours trading.
Here are the key numbers:
- Loss per share: 5 cents vs 24 cents per share expected in a Refinitiv survey of analysts
- Revenue: $765 million vs $696.9 million expected by Refinitiv
- Active riders: 17.14 million vs 15.45 million expected, per StreetAccount
- Revenue per active rider: $44.63 vs $45.36 expected, per StreetAccount
The company reported its first quarterly adjusted EBITDA profit, posting $23.8 million. That’s a quarter earlier than the company had targeted. EBITDA refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
“It’s a significant milestone for a business and for our industry,” CEO Logan Green said on the company’s earnings call. “Going forward we expect to maintain adjusted EBITDA profitability.”
Lyft said its revenue for the quarter jumped 125% year-over-year to $765 million. Revenue was up 26% from the prior quarter. Lyft also issued guidance for its third quarter, telling investors it expects revenue between $850 million and $860 million, barring a material decline in the operating landscape due to the pandemic.
The company said it saw strong demand from riders in July despite an increase in Covid case counts. Lyft reported 17.14 million active riders, up more than 3.6 million riders from the first quarter. Still, the company hasn’t fully recovered to pre-pandemic ridership levels. It reported 21.2 million riders in the first quarter of 2020.
The company has struggled with driver supply and demand imbalances, leading to surge pricing and increased wait times. That, in turn, leads to unhappy customers who could seek out ride services somewhere else.
Green said the number of drivers increased in the second quarter at a faster pace than in the first quarter. He added the company will continue to invest in driver incentives in the coming quarter.
Lyft reported a net loss for the quarter of $251.9 million versus a net loss of $437.1 million in the same period of 2020. The company said its net loss includes $207.8 million of stock-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses. Its net loss margin for the quarter was 32.9% compared to 128.8% in the same quarter a year ago.
The company reported $2.2 billion in unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, flat from the prior quarter.
