In the ride-sharing space, Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) was having troubles enough as it was. Bad enough it was living off what amounted to the scraps Uber (NASDAQ:UBER) left behind, but now, it’s got an eight-figure bill to pay. That particular bill socked Lyft right in the bottom line, and investors bailed out, taking over 3% of Lyft’s value with it in Monday afternoon’s trading session.
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The bill—a hefty $10 million—came about as part of a settlement between Lyft and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC noted that Lyft failed to disclose key information about a shareholder’s sale of roughly $424 million before Lyft stock went live to the public. Lyft, for its part, agreed to not only fork over $10 million to the SEC but also agreed to a cease-and-desist order while at the same time not having to admit or deny anything actually happened.
That’s bad news for Lyft, but perhaps it can turn things around with some of its new developments. One major new development is geared toward making passengers feel safer. Lyft drivers who are either women or nonbinary respondents can now select passengers of the same gender using a new feature called Women+ Connect. A tool like this has been frequently requested by those women and nonbinary drivers as, apparently, they’d rather not give men rides. Fox News personality Tomi Lahren, meanwhile, lambasted the move as “absurd,” suggesting that it was now only a matter of time before drivers could select a race they’d rather transport as well.
Is Lyft a Buy or Hold?
Analysts, meanwhile, are uncertain about Lyft’s overall future. A combination of four Buy ratings, 19 Holds, and one Sell means Lyft stock is considered a Hold by analyst consensus. It is, however, a Hold with 13.98% upside potential thanks to its average price target of $12.43.
