Lyft shares tumble as slowing ride growth hurt turnaround effort

Feb 11 - Lyft LYFT.O shares slid 17% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the ride‑hailing company's quarterly profit forecast and annual ride volumes trailed Wall-Street targets, underscoring a setback in its efforts to sustain a recent turnaround.

The company's ride growth, a key gauge of marketplace momentum, is losing steam amid competition, even as Lyft improves margins, expands internationally and unveiled a new $1 billion share repurchase program.

Lyft forecast a weaker‑than‑expected adjusted core profit for the first quarter, hurt by harsh U.S. winter weather and seasonal costs, and posted an unexpected operating loss for 2025.

"Lyft’s weaker-than-expected results and guide reinforce the underlying challenges it faces as it works to find pockets of durable, profitable growth while competing against both a more scaled, multi-product global player in Uber," Morgan Stanley analysts said.

Over the past two years, Lyft has progressed on profitability and cash flow, but Wall Street believes sustaining momentum on rides in the face of Uber's scale is still tough.

Lyft completed 945.5 million rides in 2025, missing the Visible Alpha estimate of 958.4 million. In the fourth quarter, typically a seasonally strong period for ride-hailing demand, the company logged 243.5 million rides, below market expectations of 256.3 million.

Jefferies said Lyft's flat growth likely signals market‑share losses given Uber's faster U.S. mobility growth, and warned that prioritizing short‑term profit over rider growth could undermine long‑term earnings.

Ride expansion has also slowed on an annual basis. Growth decelerated from 18.5% in 2023 to 14.2% in 2025, raising questions about the pace of demand gains in North America.

To offset slower domestic growth, Lyft expanded into Europe last year through its Freenow acquisition, exposing the company to new international markets and reducing its reliance on North America.

Lyft trades at 23.65 times its 12-month forward earnings, compared to Uber's 20.81.