Teacher Retirement System of Texas Acquires 215,376 Shares of Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) by 237.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 306,016 shares of the ride-sharing company’s stock after purchasing an additional 215,376 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned about 0.07% of Lyft worth $3,948,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new stake in Lyft in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Lyft during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lyft in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Lyft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Byrne Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Lyft during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on LYFT shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Lyft from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Benchmark raised Lyft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wedbush dropped their target price on Lyft from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Lyft from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Lyft in a report on Monday, March 17th. Twenty-six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.03.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Logan Green sold 11,411 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.34, for a total transaction of $152,222.74. Following the sale, the director now owns 297,640 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,970,517.60. This represents a 3.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John Patrick Zimmer sold 2,424 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.52, for a total value of $30,348.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 911,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,417,263.44. This represents a 0.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 15,407 shares of company stock worth $203,778. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Lyft Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of LYFT opened at $12.22 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 203.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 2.15. Lyft, Inc. has a 1 year low of $8.93 and a 1 year high of $20.40. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $13.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.81.

Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The ride-sharing company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.10). Lyft had a net margin of 0.39% and a return on equity of 8.03%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Lyft, Inc. will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lyft declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, February 11th that permits the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the ride-sharing company to purchase up to 8.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Lyft Profile

Lyft, Inc operates a peer-to-peer marketplace for on-demand ridesharing in the United States and Canada. It operates multimodal transportation networks that offer access to various transportation options through the Lyft platform and mobile-based applications. The company's platform provides a ridesharing marketplace, which connects drivers with riders; Express Drive, a car rental program for drivers; and a network of shared bikes and scooters in various cities to address the needs of riders for short trips.