Lyft boosts stock buyback program, targets smaller markets amid slowing growth

Reuters

Thu, May 8, 2025, 1:03 PM 2 min read

(Reuters) -Lyft accrued its banal buyback programme to $750 cardinal and posted a 14% emergence successful first-quarter gross connected Thursday, signaling dependable request for its ride-hailing services, sending its shares up 10% successful extended trading.

The company, which is expanding beyond large U.S. cities into smaller markets, said it intends to usage $500 cardinal of the authorization wrong the adjacent 12 months. It disclosed its archetypal stock repurchase programme successful February, but did not specify a timeline.

Last week, activistic capitalist Engine Capital urged Lyft to undertake a $750 cardinal accelerated repurchase and said it wanted the institution to see strategical alternatives, including a sale.

The ride-hailing level forecast second-quarter gross bookings and adjusted halfway nett mostly successful enactment with analysts' estimates.

Its first-quarter gross of $1.45 billion, however, was somewhat beneath analysts' mean estimation of $1.47 billion, according to information compiled by LSEG.

The institution posted adjusted halfway net of $106.5 cardinal during the archetypal quarter, supra the estimation of $92.4 million.

Larger rival Uber, with a planetary nutrient and market transportation business, offered an upbeat second-quarter forecast connected Wednesday, but attributed its lower-than-expected first-quarter gross to sluggish U.S. question demand.

U.S. spending connected some lodging and tourism-related enactment successful March was down astir 2.5%, according to Bank of America data, signaling souring user sentiment amid economical volatility.

With maturation rates stagnating successful large U.S. metropolitan areas, ride-hailing companies are progressively focusing their enlargement efforts connected little densely populated cities with constricted nationalist transport options to seizure caller markets and thrust growth.

Lyft is targeting smaller, car-dependent markets specified arsenic Indianapolis, wherever rides grew 37% successful the archetypal quarter.

The institution expects gross bookings betwixt $4.41 cardinal and $4.57 cardinal for the 2nd quarter, compared with the estimation of $4.5 billion.

It forecast current-quarter adjusted net earlier interest, tax, depreciation and amortization astatine $115 cardinal to $130 million.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram successful Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)