Lyft says it will turn a profit a year ahead of schedule - and the stock is exploding higher

• Lyft cofounders Logan Green and John Zimmer said Tuesday they expect the company to be profitable by the fourth quarter of 2021 - a year earlier than analyst forecasts.
• The comments came at the Wall Street Journal's Tech Live conference.
• Shares of Lyft rose as much as 11% on the news. Uber also gained as much as 8%.
• Watch Lyft trade live on Markets Insider.

Lyft cofounders Logan Green and John Zimmer said Tuesday they expect the company to be profitable by the fourth quarter of 2021 - a year earlier than analyst forecasts. The comments came during an interview at the Wall Street Journal's Tech Live conference.

The news sent Lyft shares surging as much as 11%, their biggest intraday increase since the stock's first day of public trading in late March. Uber's stock also got a boost, climbing almost 8% at its intraday peak.

"We've never laid out our path to profitability and we know that's a question on a lot of investors minds," CEO Logan Green said in a live interview at the conference. "We are going to be profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis a year before investors expect us to."

He continued: "We are going to hit this target in Q4 2021."

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The announcement comes amid a rough year for Lyft and its ride-sharing rival Uber as investors have become increasingly hesitant invest in unprofitable unicorns. Lyft reported a loss of $644 million for the second quarter. Both stocks have fallen significantly from their initial public offering prices.

Lyft did not have a clear path to profitability when it went public in March, which led to volatility in the stock. In fact, it was losing money and investing heavily to grow quickly, and said that it expected 2019 to be its worst year for financial losses.

Still, Wall Street has remained bullish on the ride-hailing company. Analysts currently have 26 "buy" ratings, 10 "holds," and just two "sells" on the stock at present time.

Even amid the stock surge, Lyft is still down 38% since its IPO.