LYFT Q4 2024 Earnings

Call Details

• Call Title: Lyft, Inc. Q4 2024 Earnings Call
• Date: February 11, 2025 at 10:00 PM UTC
• Management Team:
  • Aurélien North (Vice President, FP&A and Investor Relations)
  • David Risher (Chief Executive Officer)
  • Erin Brewer (Chief Financial Officer)

Call Summary

Financial Performance

• Gross bookings for the year were $16.1B, up 17% year over year.
• Gross bookings in Q4 were $4.28B, representing 15% year over year growth.
• Adjusted EBITDA margin for the full year was 2.4% of gross bookings and adjusted EBITDA grew nearly 70% year over year in Q4.
• Adjusted EBITDA margin as a percentage of gross bookings expanded from 1.8% in Q4 of the prior year to 2.6% in Q4 2024.
• Lyft reported its first full year of GAAP profitability and generated free cash flow of $766M for 2024 and $140M in Q4.
• Rides grew 15% in Q4 and active riders grew 10% in Q4, as reported on the call.
• Drivers collectively earned nearly $9B in 2024 and the company recorded the highest number of driver hours in any quarter in Q4.
• Riders saved more than $400M in 2024 as a result of reductions in prime time surge pricing.

Guidance

• For Q1 2025 Lyft expects rides growth in the mid-teens year over year.
• For Q1 2025 Lyft expects gross bookings growth of approximately 10% to 14% year over year, or approximately $4.05B to $4.2B.
• For Q1 2025 Lyft expects adjusted EBITDA of approximately $90M to $95M, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 2.2% to 2.3% of gross bookings.
• Lyft highlighted that Q1 2025 will have one less day due to the 2024 leap year, which is a headwind of approximately one percentage point year over year to gross bookings growth.
• CFO stated that lower pricing dynamics that began late in Q4 have persisted quarter-to-date and that a sustained lower price environment could cause a low single-digit percentage point impact to gross bookings.
• Lyft expects the ending of the Delta partnership on April 7, 2025 to reduce year-over-year rides and gross bookings growth by approximately one and two percentage points, respectively, starting in Q2 2025.
• Lyft reaffirmed its long-range plan as the North Star and expects to offset partnership headwinds by further penetrating existing partnerships and adding new ones.