Lyft says 2019 will be its 'peak loss' year (LYFT)

2019 will be Lyft's biggest year for financial losses, the company's CFO said on Tuesday.
Lyft reported its first quarterly earnings that showed accelerating growth in Q1 but also continued losses.
Shares of the company rose about 3.6% in after-hours trading following the earnings release. Follow Lyft's stock price in real-time here.

Lyft expects 2019 to be its worst year in terms of financial losses, the ride-hailing company's CFO told Wall Street analysts on Tuesday.

"We anticipate 2019 will be our peak loss year as we then move steadily towards profitably on a consolidated basis," CFO Brian Roberts said on the company's first quarter earnings conference call in response to a question about Lyft's path to profitability.

For the first three months of 2019, Lyft's net loss came in at $211.5 million, the company said. Revenues, meanwhile, rose to $776 million where Wall Street analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected $738.5 million.

"We are definitely encouraged by the strength of our core business and see a clear path to profitably in core ride sharing," Roberts continued.

Shares of Lyft rose about 3% in after-hours trading after the peak loss comment. The stock originally popped, then fell into the red, after the earnings report.

"Our initial reaction to 1Q results is positive, but detail was sparse," Jake Fuller, an analyst at Raymond James, said in a note to clients Tuesday evening. "A moderation in competition is critical to the bull case and results appear to show that, with sequential monetization and margin improvements."

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