Lyft surges 17% after posting a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss as coronavirus hit the ride-hailing industry

• Lyft reported first-quarter earnings results on Wednesday that exceeded Wall Street's expectations.
• Shares surged as much as 17% at the start of trading Thursday.
• Still, there could be trouble ahead. "We cannot predict the trajectory or timing of the eventual recovery, but it is clear that macro trends will continue to negatively impact our business," CEO Logan Green said on the company's Wednesday earnings call.
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Shares of Lyft surged as much as 17% shortly after the market opened Thursday following the company's better-than-expected first-quarter earnings results.

Despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit the ride-hailing sector hard, Lyft's results exceeded Wall Street's expectations. The company beat estimates for revenue, and posted a narrower loss than analysts predicted.

Here are the key numbers:

• Revenue: $955.7 million versus an expected $829.6 million
• Net loss (adjusted): $97.4 million versus an expected $179.6 million
• Losses per share: $1.31, in line with expectations

Ridership came in slightly lower than expected, but was still up 3% from a year ago, showing that in the first quarter, people were still taking Lyfts even amid the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, Lyft's revenue per active rider, a closely watched metric in the industry, rose 19% to a record high of $45.06.

To be sure, the first-quarter earnings include the period ending March 31, 2020, and thus reflect only a few weeks of the US economic shutdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

In April, ridership fell as much as 75%, CEO Logan Green said, but it has been slowly increasing in recent weeks.

"We cannot predict the trajectory or timing of the eventual recovery, but it is clear that macro trends will continue to negatively impact our business," Green said on the company's Wednesday earnings call.

He continued: "Even as shelter-in-place orders and travel restrictions are modified or lifted, we anticipate that continued social distancing, altered consumer behavior and expected corporate cost-cutting will be significant headwinds for Lyft."

Read more: These 22 well-known companies are vulnerable to acquisitions by private-equity buyers due to the coronavirus, BTIG says

The company in April announced it would lay off roughly 1,000 employees — 17% of its workforce — and furlough hundreds. Executives and high-level employees are also taking pay cuts, Lyft said at the time. Uber has also announced similar cuts.

In addition, Lyft in April withdrew its full-year guidance. "The strength and duration of these headwinds cannot presently be estimated. These are the hard truths we are facing," Green said.

Lyft lost nearly 40% for the year through Wednesday's close.

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