By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - Ride-sharing company Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) surged in after-hours trade on Wednesday as its first-quarter results were better than many had feared as higher margins eased the impact of the coronavirus-led slowdown in demand toward the end of the quarter.
The company reported a first-quarter loss per share of $1.31 on revenue of $955.7 million, beating Wall Street estimates for a loss of $1.36 a share on revenue of $830.18 million. Lyft reported Q1 revenue of $955.7 million versus $776.0 million in the first quarter of 2019, an increase of 23% year over year. Net losses narrowed to $398.1 million from $1.1 billion year on year.
Lyft reported contribution for first-quarter of 2020 of $547.4 million, up 42% year-over-year, with contribution margin raising to 57.3% from 49.6% in the first quarter of 2019.
The company said "active riders" on its platform climbed 21.2% to 20.5 million in the first quarter year on year, with revenue per active rider rising 19% year over year to $45.06
"Our first quarter results underscore the remarkable progress we have made since our IPO, particularly on our path to profitability as we reduced our Adjusted EBITDA loss to $85 million from $216 million in the year ago period and $131 million in the fourth quarter of 2019,” said Brian Roberts, chief financial officer of Lyft. “In these uncertain times, we are building on that progress by taking decisive action to reduce costs and further improve our operating efficiency. We expect to remove approximately $300 million from our annual expense run-rate by the fourth quarter of 2020 relative to our original expectations for 2020.”