Lyft slumps on surprise operating loss and disappointing Q1 outlook
Lyft — which has a $6.7 billion market cap — announced that it would buy back up to $1 billion in shares.
Lyft is down 17% in premarket trading as of 5:10 a.m. ET on Wednesday after announcing a Q4 sales miss and weak guidance for the current quarter after the bell yesterday.
For the first three months of 2026, Lyft expects:
Adjusted EBITDA between $120 million and $140 million, a lower midpoint than the $140 million the Street had been expecting.
Between $4.86 billion and $5 billion in gross bookings, yielding a midpoint that’s marginally ahead of the $4.9 billion analysts are penciling in.
Lyft’s $188.4 million operating loss in 2025 — a hit from an “unexpected” increase in rivals’ price promotion, as the company detailed on its earnings call — also surprised investors. Worries around that drop overshadowed results from Lyft’s most profitable quarter on record.
For the last three months of 2025, Lyft reported:
Adjusted EBITDA of $154.1 million, compared to the $147 million analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.
Revenue of $1.6 billion, lower than the $1.7 billion Wall Street was penciling in. The company noted its revenue took a $168 million hit from “from certain legal, tax, and regulatory reserve changes and settlements.”
$5.1 billion in gross bookings, slightly ahead of the $5 billion analysts had forecast.
CEO David Risher said in a statement that 2025 “was an incredible year in Lyft’s comeback story,” adding that “as we look ahead, we are entering a transformational phase for Lyft — 2026 will be the year of the AV with deployments in the US and overseas.”
Lyft — which has a market cap of about $6.7 billion — also announced an additional stock buyback of up to $1 billion. The company previously announced that it authorized $750 million of buybacks in May.
