After-Hours Alert: Why Lyft Shares Are Crashing

Lyft Inc LYFT shares are trading lower in Thursday's after-hours session after the company reported fourth-quarter financial results and issued weak guidance.

What Happened: Lyft said fourth-quarter revenue increased 21% year-over-year to $1.18 billion, which beat average analyst estimates of $1.16 billion, according to Benzinga Pro. 

Lyft said active riders were up 8.7% year-over-year in the quarter to 20.36 million. Revenue per active ride jumped 11.5% year-over-year to $57.72. In the last quarter, the growth rate was 13.7%.

"In Q4 we achieved the highest revenues in our company's history, and we outperformed guidance on Adjusted EBITDA excluding the action we took to strengthen our insurance reserves," said Elaine Paul, CFO of Lyft.

"Our Q1 guidance is the result of seasonality and lower prices, including less Prime Time. Additionally, our different insurance renewal timing puts differently timed pressure on our P&L."

Lyft sees first-quarter revenue of approximately $975 million versus estimates of $1.09 billion.

LYFT Price Action: Lyft has a 52-week high of $45.65 and a 52-week low of $9.66.

The stock was down 22.9% at $12.49 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: courtesy of Lyft.