The ride share company laid off 90 employees in an effort to achieve profitability by 2021
Ride share giant Lyft Inc (NASDAQ:LYFT) announced last evening that it will be laying off 90 employees -- about 2% of its workforce -- in an effort to restructure some of their sales and marketing teams and achieve profitability by next year. The stock is struggling for direction this morning, up 0.3% at $46.99 at last check, shaking off early morning losses.
On the charts, Lyft has had a tough ride. While a recent pullback was mostly captured by the equity's 80-day moving average, LYFT now seems to be running into trouble at its newly formed 160-day trendline, which happens to coincide with familiar pressure at its $50 region. On the other hand, the security has managed to add over 27% since bottoming out at an all time low near the $37 region in mid-October.
Despite the mostly negative price action the stock has experienced since its early April debut, analysts are still hopeful. Twenty-four of the 32 in coverage consider LYFT a "buy" or better, while only one says "sell." Plus, the consensus 12-month price target of $66.13 represents a 41.2% premium to current levels and its territory that hasn't been touched since mid-July.
Options players have also been bullish about LYFT. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) 3.18 calls have been bought for every put during the last 10 days. Some of these calls could be the result of shorts hedging against any additional upside risk. Short interest has surged 17.6% in the last two reporting periods, with the 20.51 million shares sold short representing a solid 10.3% of LYFT's available float.