Piper Sandler on Wednesday trimmed its price target for Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) to $20.00 from $28.00, but left its Overweight rating intact. The new target sits near InvestingPro's Fair Value estimate, which indicates Lyft is trading below intrinsic value at its current market price of $16.85.
The analyst decision follows Lyft's recent quarterly report, a release that showed bookings and EBITDA roughly in line with expectations but revealed a slowdown in ride volume. The company said late-quarter promotional activity contributed to the weaker ride numbers, and investors reacted sharply - the stock lost about 15% around the reporting period.
Despite the volume headwind, Lyft delivered 14.9% revenue growth over the last twelve months and generated EBITDA of $132.41 million. Piper Sandler argued that the market sell-off appears overdone, noting that company management still expects bookings to accelerate and EBITDA margins to expand into 2026.
In assessing Lyft's longer-term opportunity set, the research team pointed to several constructive elements: continued international expansion, revenue from new products and partner agreements, and the potential upside from autonomous vehicle efforts, which the firm expects could add accretive value to results over time.
Management has also increased the company’s share repurchase authorization by $1 billion. Piper Sandler described Lyft as "compellingly cheap" on a valuation basis - roughly 7x estimated 2027 EV/EBITDA - for a company it sees capable of mid-to-high teens topline growth.
Additional market responses to Lyft's quarter have been mixed. The company reported fourth-quarter 2025 earnings that produced a material EPS beat, posting $6.72 per share versus an expected $0.1255. Revenue, however, came in below projections at $1.59 billion compared with analysts' expectations of $1.76 billion. The quarter nonetheless delivered record profitability.
KeyBanc Capital Markets opted to keep a Sector Weight rating on Lyft, citing strong bookings and EBITDA, though it noted that the company's guidance slipped slightly under consensus forecasts. Meanwhile, Guggenheim trimmed its price target to $22 from $26 while retaining a Buy rating; that adjustment reflected a slowdown in ride growth, which fell by 340 basis points even as gross bookings growth improved by 220 basis points.
Lyft management explained the decline in ride growth as the result of deliberate choices made during a period when competitors increased promotional activity. Taken together, the analyst revisions, the company's updated buyback capacity, and the mixed quarter results illustrate how investors are weighing near-term volume dynamics against longer-term growth and margin prospects for the rideshare operator.
What this means: The stock's valuation and management guidance leave room for divergent analyst views: some see an attractive entry point based on expected margin expansion and buybacks, while others are cautious because of the recent slowdown in ride volumes tied to promotional competition.