LYFT's Gross Bookings Growth Gaining Pace: A Sign of More Upside?

Lyft LYFT, a ridesharing company based in San Francisco, CA, is benefiting from the increase in gross bookings. Gross bookings are improving mainly owing to the growing active rider base, expansion into new markets and the success of the company’s customer-friendly "Price Lock" feature.

Last month, Lyft released its first-quarter 2025 earnings report. In the March quarter, gross bookings increased 13% year over year to $4.6 billion. Management stated that this was the 16th consecutive quarter where Lyft demonstrated double-digit year-on-year growth in the key metric. The uptick was driven by the record active riders of 24.4 million in the quarter. Active riders increased 11% year over year in the quarter.

The total number of rides in the quarter reached a first-quarter record of 218.4 million, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 16%. For the second quarter of 2025, Lyft expects gross bookings in the $4.41-$4.57 billion range, indicating 10-14% growth from second-quarter 2024 actuals.  

LYFT’s move to focus on less densely populated markets, such as Indianapolis, is paying off. Its Price Lock feature is also doing well. With the return-to-office mode gaining steam, there is a surge in weekday demand for ride-hailing services. To compete more effectively with rivals in the ride-hailing arena, Lyft has introduced a Price Lock feature. This feature allows users to bypass surge pricing during peak commuting hours. By locking in a commute price, they can save money.

Comparable Metrics of Other Ride-Hailing Entities

With customer traffic picking up, gross bookings were highly impressive for rival Uber Technologies UBER in the first quarter of 2025. Gross bookings from Uber’s Mobility segment in the March quarter increased 20% year over year on a constant currency basis to $21.2 billion. The metric from the Delivery segment in the March quarter rose 18% year over year on a constant currency basis to $20.4 billion. In the June quarter, Uber expects gross bookings to be in the $45.75-$47.25 billion range, representing growth on a constant currency basis in the 16-20% band from second-quarter 2024 actuals.

Singapore-based Grab GRAB is benefiting from strong growth in its On-Demand Gross Merchandise Value (“GMV”). On-Demand GMV refers to the sum of GMV of the mobility and deliveries segments. In the first quarter of 2025, On-Demand GMV increased 16% year over year at Grab. Grab expects 2025 revenues between $3.33 billion and $3.40 billion, indicating 19-22% year-over-year growth.

LYFT’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of LYFT have gained 8.3% in the past six months against its industry’s 8.1% decline in the same timeframe.

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From a valuation standpoint, LYFT trades at a 12-month forward price-to-sales of 0.89X. LYFT is inexpensive compared with its industry.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LYFT’s 2025 and 2026 earnings has been revised upward over the past 60 days.

LYFT's Zacks Rank

LYFT currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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