How a typo sent Lyft’s stock soaring
Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, February 14, 2024
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TheStreet’s J.D. Durkin brings the latest business headlines from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as markets close for trading Wednesday, February 14.
Full Video Transcript Below:
J.D. DURKIN: I’m J.D. Durkin – reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks were in the green to close out today’s session. The Dow closed up 150 points, the Nasdaq closed 1.3 percent higher, and the S&P closed close to one percent higher. Markets are clawing back their sharp losses from Tuesday as investors react to better-than-expected corporate earnings. So far, a majority of earnings have come in better than expected, showing a surprisingly resilient economy in the latter half of 2023.
Investors are looking ahead to more economic data. Retail sales data out Thursday and producer prices out Friday.
In other news – Lyft saw its stock soar after it released its fourth-quarter earnings report, but it was all due to a very big typo. In the report, the company said it estimated its gross margin would grow by 500 basis points in 2024, or 5 percent. But what it really meant to say was margins would grow by 50 basis points – just a half of a percent.
Lyft saw shares skyrocket by about 60% after it released the report – and while the stock was still up after the correction was made because it beat Wall Street estimates – it lost a lot of its initial buzz.
Talking to CNBC about the error, Lyft CEO David Risher said, “Look, it was a bad error, and that’s on me. We had thousands of eyes, we’ve got a process on this that is nuts. It’s a terrible thing. It is an extra zero that slipped into a press release.”
Lyft reported $1.22 billion in revenue for Q4, a 4 percent year-over-year increase. However, despite the jump in stock price – shares of Lyft are down almost 80 percent from its 2019 debut price.
That’ll do it for your daily briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m J.D. Durkin with TheStreet.