Lyft’s Strong Second Quarter Results Show A Post-COVID Recovery

Ride-hailing company Lyft reported its second-quarter earnings results on Thursday and the impressive results show a post-covid recovery. Earlier this year, investors had been worried about the Uber rival’s ability to control the cost of the investments the company had been embarking on to attract and retain drivers. The company was, however, able to manage its cost situation by doing some internal cost-cutting and a post-covid surge also helped in delivering what is its best quarter yet. The company’s shares were up about 16 percent following the announcement.

Revenue for the second quarter came in at $990.7 million, up from the $765 million it reported in the same period last year. Second quarter revenue is also up 13 percent from the previous quarter when it reported revenue of $875.6 million.

The company reported a net loss of $377.2 million, up from the $251.9 million recorded in the same period a year ago and the $196.9 million reported in the previous quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter came in at $79.1 million, up from $55.3 million recorded in the same period a year ago and the $24.3 million reported in the first quarter. Lyft ended the quarter with $1.8 billion in cash.

Lyft’s Chief Financial Officer Elaine Paul while speaking during its earnings call mentioned that the company had raised its operating plan. This involved pulling back on spending and slowing hiring, as well as placing increased focus on R&D initiatives and reorganizing teams to stay focused on improving profitable growth.

Lyft reviewed its third quarter and full-year guidance. “We expect Q3 revenues of between $1.040 billion and $1.060 billion, which implies growth of between 5 percent and 7 percent versus Q2, and growth of 20 percent and 23 percent versus Q3 last year,” CFO Elaine Paul said. The company expects its full-year revenue for this year to be 23 percent slower than that of 2021. The company also expects adjusted EBITDA of $55 million to $65 million for the third quarter, and $1 billion of adjusted EBITDA in 2024.