Lyft Announces Strong Q3 2024 Financial Results and Raises Full-Year Outlook

Lyft, Inc. (Nasdaq:LYFT) today announced financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024.

“Our team delivered one of the strongest quarters in Lyft history, following the many new innovations we’ve brought to drivers and riders so far this year,” said CEO David Risher. “Going forward, our work with best-of-breed partners and the autonomous future we’re building will give people even more reasons to choose Lyft every time.”

“Operational excellence underpins the health of our marketplace and remains a long-term driver of our business,” said CFO Erin Brewer. “In Q3, we delivered across the board with both driver hours and Active Riders reaching all-time highs, surpassing the prior quarter records.”

Third Quarter 2024 Financial Highlights

• Gross Bookings of $4.1 billion was up 16% year-over-year.
• Revenue of $1.5 billion was up 32% year-over-year.
• Net loss of $(12.4) million, which includes a restructuring charge of $36.4 million taken during the quarter, compared to $(12.1) million in Q3’23.
• Net loss as a percentage of Gross Bookings was (0.3)%, which was flat year-over-year.
• Adjusted EBITDA of $107.3 million compared to $92.0 million in Q3’23.
  • Adjusted EBITDA margin as a percentage of Gross Bookings was 2.6%, which was flat year-over-year.
• Net cash provided by operating activities of $264.0 million compared to $2.3 million in Q3’23.
  • For the trailing twelve months, net cash provided by operating activities was $739.9 million.
• Free cash flow of $242.8 million compared to $(30.0) million in Q3’23.
  • For the trailing twelve months, free cash flow was $641.2 million.

Third Quarter 2024 Operational Highlights

• Record Active Riders of 24.4 million: up 9% year-over-year.
• Record Rides of 217 million: up 16% year-over-year.
• Autonomous partnerships: Lyft to join forces with Mobileye, May Mobility, and Nexar to connect riders to autonomous vehicles. Starting in 2025, riders in Atlanta will have the opportunity to be matched with an AV when hailing a ride on Lyft.
• DoorDash x Lyft: signed a strategic partnership with the local delivery leader in the U.S., offering exclusive benefits to riders that link their DashPass accounts. Millions of DashPass members in the U.S. now have another reason to choose Lyft every time.
• Further driver earnings improvements: drivers can count on their earnings being increased any time a ride takes 5 minutes longer than estimated, or for dropping off a rider that takes them out of their way without a ride back. Drivers also now see the estimated dollar per hour rate upfront for each ride.

Fourth Quarter 2024 Outlook

• Gross Bookings of approximately $4.28 billion to $4.35 billion, up 15% to 17% year-over-year
• Adjusted EBITDA of $100 million to $105 million and an Adjusted EBITDA margin (calculated as a percentage of Gross Bookings) of approximately 2.3% to 2.4%.

Updated FY’24 Outlook

• Rides growth in the mid-teens year-over-year.
• Gross Bookings to grow approximately 17% year-over-year.
• Adjusted EBITDA margin (calculated as a percentage of Gross Bookings) of approximately 2.3%, up from the prior outlook of 2.1%.
• Free cash flow to exceed $650 million.

We have not provided the forward-looking GAAP equivalent to our non-GAAP outlook or a GAAP reconciliation as a result of the uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of reconciling items such as stock-based compensation and income tax. Accordingly, a reconciliation of these non-GAAP guidance metrics to their corresponding GAAP equivalent is not available without unreasonable effort. However, it is important to note that the reconciling items could have a significant effect on future GAAP results. We have provided historical reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP metrics in tables at the end of this release. For more information regarding the non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this earnings release, please see “GAAP to non-GAAP Reconciliations” below.

Financial and Operational Results through the Third Quarter of 2024

Definitions of Key Metrics

Active Riders

The number of Active Riders is a key indicator of the scale of our user community. Lyft defines Active Riders as all riders who take at least one ride during a quarter where the Lyft Platform processes the transaction. An Active Rider is identified by a unique phone number. If a rider has two mobile phone numbers or changed their phone number and that rider took rides using both phone numbers during the quarter, that person would count as two Active Riders. If a rider has a personal and business profile tied to the same mobile phone number, that person would be considered a single Active Rider. If a ride has been requested by an organization using our Concierge offering for the benefit of a rider, we exclude this rider in the calculation of Active Riders, unless the ride is accessible in that rider’s Lyft App.

Rides

Rides represent the level of usage of our multimodal platform. Lyft defines Rides as the total number of rides including rideshare and bike and scooter rides completed using our multimodal platform that contribute to our revenue. These include any Rides taken through our Lyft App. If multiple riders take a private rideshare ride, including situations where one party picks up another party on the way to a destination, or splits the bill, we count this as a single rideshare ride. Each unique segment of a Shared Ride is considered a single Ride. For example, if two riders successfully match in Shared Ride mode and both complete their Rides, we count this as two Rides. We have largely shifted away from Shared Rides, and now only offer Shared Rides in limited markets. Lyft includes all Rides taken by riders via our Concierge offering, even though such riders may be excluded from the definition of Active Riders unless the ride is accessible in that rider’s Lyft App.

Gross Bookings

Gross Bookings is a key indicator of the scale and impact of our overall platform. Lyft defines Gross Bookings as the total dollar value of transactions invoiced to rideshare riders including any applicable taxes, tolls and fees excluding tips to drivers. It also includes amounts invoiced for other offerings, including but not limited to: Express Drive vehicle rentals, bike and scooter rentals, and amounts recognized for subscriptions, bike and bike station hardware and software sales, media, sponsorships, partnerships, and licensing and data access agreements.

Adjusted EBITDA margin (calculated as a percentage of Gross Bookings)

Adjusted EBITDA margin (calculated as a percentage of Gross Bookings) is calculated by dividing Adjusted EBITDA for a period by Gross Bookings for the same period. For the definition of Adjusted EBITDA, refer to “Non-GAAP Financial Measures”.

Webcast

Lyft will host a webcast today at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) to discuss these financial results and business highlights. To listen to a live audio webcast, please visit our Investor Relations page at https://investor.lyft.com/. The archived webcast will be available on our Investor Relations page shortly after the call.

About Lyft

Whether it’s an everyday commute or a journey that changes everything, Lyft is driven by our purpose: to serve and connect. In 2012, Lyft was founded as one of the first ridesharing communities in the United States. Now, millions of drivers have chosen to earn on billions of rides. Lyft offers rideshare, bikes, and scooters all in one app — for a more connected world, with transportation for everyone.

Available Information

Lyft announces material information to the public about Lyft, its products and services and other matters through a variety of means, including filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts, the investor relations section of its website (investor.lyft.com), its X accounts (@lyft and @davidrisher), its Chief Executive Officer’s LinkedIn account (linkedin.com/in/jdavidrisher) and its blogs (including: lyft.com/blog, lyft.com/hub, and eng.lyft.com) in order to achieve broad, non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Lyft’s future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “going to,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern Lyft’s expectations, strategy, priorities, plans or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, Lyft’s guidance and outlook, including for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2024, and the trends and assumptions underlying such guidance and outlook, and Lyft’s plans and expectations, including statements about autonomous partnerships and our strategic partnership with DoorDash and the benefits such partnerships will provide. Lyft’s expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not materialize, and actual results in future periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including risks related to the macroeconomic environment and risks regarding our ability to forecast our performance due to our limited operating history and the macroeconomic environment and the risk that our partnerships may not materialize as expected. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Lyft’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2024 that was filed with the SEC on August 7, 2024 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 that will be filed with the SEC by November 12, 2024. The forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to Lyft as of the date hereof, and Lyft disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. This press release discusses “customers.” For rideshare, there are two customers in every car – the driver is Lyft’s customer, and the rider is the driver’s customer. We care about both.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement Lyft’s financial information presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America, or GAAP, Lyft considers certain financial measures that are not prepared in accordance with GAAP, including Adjusted Net Income (Loss), Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin (calculated as a percentage of Gross Bookings) and free cash flow. Lyft defines Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) adjusted for interest expense, other income (expense), net, provision for (benefit from) income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense, payroll tax expense related to stock-based compensation and sublease income, as well as, if applicable, restructuring charges, costs related to acquisitions and divestitures and costs from transactions related to certain legacy auto insurance liabilities. Adjusted EBITDA margin (calculated as a percentage of Gross Bookings) is calculated by dividing Adjusted EBITDA for a period by Gross Bookings for the same period and is considered a key metric. Lyft defines Adjusted Net Income (Loss) as net income (loss) adjusted for amortization of intangible assets, stock-based compensation expense (net of any benefit), and payroll tax expense related to stock-based compensation, as well as, if applicable, restructuring charges and transaction costs related to certain legacy auto insurance liabilities and cost related to acquisitions and divestitures. Lyft defines free cash flow as GAAP net cash provided by (used in) operating activities less purchases of property and equipment and scooter fleet.

Lyft subleases certain office space and earns sublease income. Sublease income is included within other income, net on the condensed consolidated statement of operations, while the related lease expense is included within operating expenses and loss from operations. Lyft believes the adjustment to include sublease income in Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors by enabling them to better assess Lyft’s operating performance, including the benefits of recent transactions, by presenting sublease income as a contra-expense to the related lease charges that are part of operating expenses.

In November 2022, April 2023 and September 2024, Lyft committed to plans of termination as part of efforts to reduce operating expenses. Lyft believes the costs associated with these restructuring efforts do not reflect performance of Lyft’s ongoing operations. Lyft believes the adjustment to exclude the costs related to restructuring from Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income (Loss) is useful to investors by enabling them to better assess Lyft’s ongoing operating performance and provide for better comparability with Lyft’s historically disclosed Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income (Loss) amounts.

Lyft uses its non-GAAP financial measures in conjunction with GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to communicate with our board of directors concerning our financial performance. Free cash flow is a measure used by our management to understand and evaluate our operating performance and trends. We believe free cash flow is a useful indicator of liquidity that provides our management with information about our ability to generate or use cash to enhance the strength of our balance sheet, further invest in our business and pursue potential strategic initiatives. Free cash flow has certain limitations, including that it does not reflect our future contractual commitments and it does not represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for a given period. Free cash flow does not necessarily represent funds available for discretionary use and is not necessarily a measure of our ability to fund our cash needs.

Lyft’s definitions may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish these or similar metrics. Furthermore, these measures have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our consolidated statement of operations that are necessary to run our business. Thus, our non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as substitutes for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

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