Lyft reports slide in active riders in quarterly earnings

The ridesharing service releases its Q3 2021 earnings, including an increase in revenue per active rider. Yahoo Finance's Jared Blikre goes in depth.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: Let's get to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Jared Blikre. We're watching shares of Lyft trade higher after hours. And as part of that, two in a row when it comes to adjusted earnings, adjusted profit.

JARED BLIKRE: Well, I'll tell you what, adjusted EBITDA not quite the same thing but close. We're getting there. It was a positive 67.3 million. Nice beat. The estimate by the Street was 33 million. And that's a big change year over year. Last year, it was only-- it was a loss of 239.7 million. So the path to eventual profitability appearing there in those numbers. Revenue is also a beat. That came in at 864.4 million, up 73% year over year. Estimate was just about two million lower, at 862 million.

And then a key metric here that they disappointed a little bit. Active riders, 18.9 million. That's a 51% increase year over year, but short of the Street's estimate of 19.3 million, short by 400,000 there. Also, revenue per active rider, that did increase above Street estimates. That came in at $45.63. The estimate was for $44.43. Cash and cash equivalents ending the quarter at $728 million, higher than the Street expected. And finally, that gap lost per share, that was $0.21 versus a loss per share of $1.46, so $1.46 year over year.

Also, I want to read something from the CFO, Brian Roberts. He said, given our success onboarding new drivers and expected supply tailwinds, we anticipate our service levels will naturally improve in Q4 and lead to lower prices, which would be very welcome by me, guys.