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May 7, 2019

Lyft lost more than $1 billion last quarter

Photo | Contributed Customers access Lyft's app to schedule a ride.
By CNN BUSINESS

Lyft said Tuesday it lost $1.14 billion in the first three months of the year, primarily due to stock-based compensation and other expenses connected to its initial public offering.

With those costs excluded, Lyft's net loss for the quarter was about $245 million, a staggering amount by some standards, but roughly unchanged from the $234 million it lost in the same period a year earlier.

While it mostly kept its losses in line with the previous year, Lyft managed to nearly double revenue. Lyft posted revenue of $776 million for the quarter, a 95% increase from the year prior.

Lyft stock dipped 3% in after hours trading following the earnings report.

It was the first time Lyft reported earnings results since going public at the end of March. Its Wall Street honeymoon proved to be short-lived. Lyft's stock fell below its IPO price of $72 a share on its second day of trading and continued to drop after.

Shares hovered around $60 on Tuesday ahead of the earnings results, more than 15% below the IPO price, as investors weigh concerns about a company that lost nearly $1 billion in 2018 and is waging a costly battle with the much larger Uber.

"Let's not sugarcoat it, Lyft's stock has been a head-scratching train wreck since the IPO," Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush, wrote in an investor note this month.

Some saw Lyft's lackluster debut as a warning sign for the growing list of tech unicorns racing to go public. Yet, more recent IPOs like Pinterest and Zoom remain well above their IPO price. Pinterest had comparatively modest losses, however, and Zoom is profitable.

In his note, Ives said investors chose to take "a wait and see approach" to Lyft ahead of the earnings report and with Uber set to make its Wall Street debut later this week.

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