Shares rollercoaster: Lyft surged 67% in after-hours trading after it suggested that it would hit profits of £725m this year
Investors in taxi app Lyft were given a bumpy ride after a ‘clerical error’ in results sent shares up more than 60 per cent – before making a sharp U-turn.
Lyft surged in after-hours trading on Wall Street on Tuesday after it suggested that it would hit profits of £725millio this year. Within minutes, shares soared 67 per cent towards $20.
But the rally was short-lived as the San Francisco-based group corrected itself, saying it expects profits to hit around £230million, which sent shares back down to earth with a bump.
As trading resumed in New York yesterday, the stock was up 30 per cent, a still-impressive gain but quite a way off the initial rise. A company spokesman has blamed a ‘clerical error’ for the mistake.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, branded it ‘a debacle of epic proportions’.
The mistake was just the latest headache for the company, which has lost around 80 per cent of its value since its initial public offering back in 2019.
The business is in competition with larger rivals Uber and Bolt, who have tended to dominate the ride-hailing market.
But figures for the fourth quarter of last year suggested things may be looking up.
Lyft said that bookings in the final three months of 2023 were 17 per cent higher than a year earlier, at £2.95billion.
Revenue hit £960million while losses narrowed to £21million.
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