Lyft Shares Jump 20 Pct With IPO Debut

Lyft shares had a strong debut on Friday (March 29), trading at $87.24, which is 20 percent higher than its IPO price of $72, according to CNBC.

Lyft said it sold 32.5 million shares on Thursday at the $72 price. The company has raised about $2.3 billion from the listing.

The stock stayed at $87 for a few minutes before dropping to $80, but demand for the stock was strong and upwards of six million shares were traded.

The pop pushes Lyft’s valuation to around $25 billion.

“This is a lightning start for Lyft’s stock as investors are salivating (over) owning a piece of the $1 trillion ridesharing market,” said Wedbush Managing Director Dan Ives. “The robust start to trading is also a clear positive for other tech names that are watching Lyft to gauge investor demand and Street reaction on this transformational consumer tech name.”

Lyft said it had elevating revenue in its IPO prospectus, but posted a loss of $900 million in 2018.

“We’re ready to be held accountable. We’re excited,” said Co-founder and President John Zimmer. “In our case, I think what we’ve seen in talking to investors (is) that more people are maybe surprised to see the numbers that we’re putting out, and I think this is a great part of the process. For us, this wasn’t the goal – this is a milestone along the way – but we feel like it helps us with additional access to capital.”

Zimmer also said the company isn’t worried about being cheaper than Uber, and is more concerned with offering the best service for its customers.

“It’s not about a price battle between the two players anymore,” Zimmer said. “It’s about getting the best service, having the best software and real-world operations.”

In the past, Lyft has benefited from Uber’s troubles, especially the #deleteUber movement in January 2017. By the end of 2018, Lyft had claimed 39 percent of the ride-hailing market in the U.S.

“In 2016 and prior, there was a need for us to get up to scale – scale in our business is a three-minute pick-up time,” Zimmer said. “Now what we have is 80 percent of our passengers are coming in organically. They’re coming in because of the brand, because of the service (and) because of our driver community.”