Lyft Achieves Record Earnings, Faces Inflationary Headwinds

Lyft Achieves Record Earnings
Lyft’ adjusted earnings hit $79 million in the second quarter. The Company sees “material improvement” in driver shortage.

Lyft shares jumped as much as 8.6% Friday and is on track for its best week in nearly two years on after reporting the highest earnings in its history.

The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company reported adjusted earnings, which strip out some costs, of $79.1 million in the second quarter, far surpassing the $18.1 million average analysts were expecting, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue rose 30% from a year earlier to $991 million.

Lyft also beat Wall Street revenue expectations, bringing in a second-quarter revenue of $990.7 million, which is up from $765 million in the same quarter of last year. It’s also a 13% quarter-over-quarter increase from Lyft Q1 revenue of $875.6 million.

During Q2, Lyft restructured and reprioritized in an attempt to face down inflation and rising economic pressures. While it won’t show up on Q2’s balance sheet, this sort of belt-tightening can be seen in Lyft’s recent decision to close its in-house car rental business and consolidate some of its vehicle driver support locations, which resulted in a layoff of nearly 60 employees.