Lyft stocks descended into a 35% freefall on Friday after the release of the company’s fourth-quarter financial results. The ridesharing company reported an adjusted loss of 74 cents per share on revenue of $1.2 billion. This falls short of investors’ expectations of earnings of 13 cents on revenue of $1.15 billion.
Following the company’s underwhelming Q4 results, Lyft decided to lower its expectations going into the first quarter of 2023. While revenue expectations were at $1.1 billion, the company released a revenue projection of $975 million.
While revenue spiked by 21% compared to the same period during the previous year, Lyft’s subscriber base did not strengthen as much as analysts expected, with its 20.4 million active riders falling short of expectations of 23 million.
Close rival Uber experienced contrasting results, posting double-digit growth in bookings which contributed to a quarterly gain instead of a loss as Lyft experienced. “Our Q1 guidance is the result of seasonality and lower prices, including less Prime Time,” Lyft CFO Elaine Paul explained in a news release.
The ridesharing company reported an annual revenue of $4.1 billion; exceeding estimates of $4.07 billion.