Lyft crushed expectations Wednesday with the release of its second quarter earnings report. The ridesharing service posted a loss per share of just $0.68 — less than half of the $1.74 that was expected.
The company also reported $867.3 million in revenue, which was up from the $809 million expected and a sharp increase from the $504.9 million posted in the second quarter of last year.
"Lyft's second quarter was marked by strong execution and important advances in our product and platform," Logan Green, Lyft's co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. Green added that the strong revenue stemmed largely from accelerated Active Rider growth and increased Revenue per Active Rider monetization.
The ride hailing company's earnings report comes less than five months after Lyft went public on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Since its highly-anticipated market debut, however, Lyft's stock has struggled to gain traction with shares currently down roughly a quarter from its opening day high of $78 a piece. The company's stock has, nonetheless, been up around 13 percent over the last three months.
Founded in 2012 in San Francisco, Lyft ($LYFT) was originally known for the fuzzy pink mustaches fixed to the hoods and grilles of its cars and largely seen as the younger brother of Uber. Seven years later, the company has completed over one billion rides and has nearly two million drivers.
Wednesday's earnings report noted that the number of active riders in the second quarter hit 21.8 million, an increase of over 40 percent from the year prior.
"It's amazing" Ray Wang, principal analyst and founder of Constellation Research, told Cheddar. "What it shows right now is that they have got their operation down in order, and they have been able to manage their expense and cost structure."
Still, Lyft posted a net loss of $644.2 million for the second quarter.
Although the company's shares surged in after-hours trading due to improved guidance for 2019's third quarter, they quickly leveled off after Lyft announced it was moving up the lockup date release for its shareholders by more than a month.
The company also said it now expects to lose between $850 million and $875 million, which is way down from the earlier guidance of between $1.15 billion and $1.175 billion.
"We remain focused on reshaping transportation, and we are pleased with the continued improvement in market conditions. This environment along with our execution is translating to strong revenue growth and sales and marketing efficiencies," Green said. "As a result of this positive momentum, we anticipate 2019 losses to be better than previously expected, and we are pleased to have updated our outlook."
