Lyft is increasing its focus on and seeing strong results in "regions with high car dependency and limited public transportation," according to a Thursday earnings statement.
"It's cities like Indianapolis, Charlotte, where we grew, in both cases, more than 30 percent year over year in Q1," Lyft CEO David Risher said on a Thursday evening earnings call. The expansion "complements our ongoing success in established markets and broadens our overall reach," according to the company.
The remarks echo Uber's comments in a Wednesday earnings call, in which it cited growth in "sparse markets."
The company is about to launch taxis on the Lyft platform later this month, starting in St. Louis, and it is expanding its international reach, with Quebec onboarding "soon." Lyft rides in Canada are up more than 50 percent year over year. These taxi and international expansions are in addition to the acquisition of Freenow, a European taxi-hailing and mobility app, announced in April.
Memberships for Lyft's Price Lock feature, introduced last year, increased 21 percent compared with Q4 2024.
Activist Investor Update
There was no mention of activist investor Engine Capital by Lyft executives during the Thursday call nor in earnings materials. Engine Capital as of late March had taken a 1 percent stake in the company for about $50 million. On April 29, the investment company issued a presentation and filed a definitive proxy statement calling for two new Lyft board members: Alan Bazaar and Daniel Silvers to replace Sean Aggarwal and Betsey Stevenson.
Engine Capital also wanted Lyft to implement a $750 million accelerated share repurchase program, eliminate the dual-class share structure and de-stagger the board.
In Thursday's prepared remarks, Lyft announced that given its strong performance and other factors, the company is "increasing the authorization of our share repurchase program to $750 million and accelerating the pace of our share buyback to utilize $500 million over the next 12 months, $200 million of which will be utilized over the next three months. Combined with our switch last year to net share settlement for all equity awards, this will further increase shareholder value and reduce our share count."
Lyft Q1 Metrics
Lyft reported first-quarter revenue of nearly $1.5 billion, an increase of 13.5 percent year over year. Gross bookings were nearly $4.2 billion, a first-quarter record, representing a 12.7 percent increase. Net income was $2.6 million compared with a net loss of $31.5 million a year prior.
First-quarter active riders reached 24.2 million, an increase from 21.9 million in Q1 2024. Total rides were 218.4 million compared to 187.7 million the previous year. Active riders and total rides each were first-quarter records, according to Lyft.
Lyft's second-quarter outlook includes ride growth in the mid-teen percentages year over year, and gross bookings of $4.4 billion to nearly $4.6 billion, for 10 percent to 14 percent growth compared with Q2 2024.
RELATED: Lyft Q4 performance