Are Analysts Giving Lyft Too Much Credit?

Lyft Inc. (NASDAQ: LYFT) came public at the end of March in one of the biggest initial public offerings of the year. The IPO initially disappointed — and is still disappointing — investors, with shares currently trading well below the original pricing. However, analysts finally are getting their chance to go to bat for the ride-sharing firm now that the quiet period is over.

Shares originally priced at $72 apiece for the IPO, at the high end of the expected price range of $70 to $72. The stock actually hit its high in the first day of trading, and everything has been downhill since then.

Most analysts had a surprisingly positive take on the stock, considering this recent trading history. Then again, most of the analysts coming out of this quiet period were underwriters for the IPO.

Credit Suisse, initiated Lyft with an Outperform rating and a $95 price target. According to its report:

Ride sharing is tapping into a large and underpenetrated market and can help disrupt the $1.2 trillion spending theme, with a total addressable market in the near-to-medium term of about $745 billion. The firm sees an upside option from autonomous driving as well, helping consumers to make the choice to give up their cars that much easier and to further accelerate ride sharing adoption.

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Here’s what a few of the other analysts had to say as well:

• Stifel started Lyft with a Buy rating and a $68 price target.
• JPMorgan started it with an Overweight rating and an $82 price target.
• Piper Jaffray initiated it with an Overweight rating and a $78 target.
• UBS started Lyft with a Buy rating and an $82 target.
• Canaccord Genuity issued a new Buy rating with a $75 target.
• Cowen started it as Outperform with a $77 target.
• KeyBanc Capital Markets started it with Sector Weight rating and a $67 target.
• JMP Securities started it as Market Outperform with a $78 target price

Shares of Lyft were last seen up 1% at $61.59, with a 52-week range of $55.56 to $88.60. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $74.00.

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