Besides earnings and fundamental news affecting the broad market, Wall Street analyst actions can have a positive or negative impact on an issue's price action. That is certainly the case with LYFT Inc (NASDAQ:LYFT), which is the PreMarket Prep Stock of the Day.
Lyft's New All-Time Low: Whereas the S&P 500 index bottomed in late June, Lyft did not find a bottom until July 13 at $11.96. After putting in another pair of lows at the $12 area, the issue embarked on an impressive rally. That marked a new all-time low for the issue that was substantially below its pandemic low of $14.56.
The bulk of the rally took place during place during a seven-days-out-of- eight winning streak from July 27 to Aug. 5. The closing high for the rebound was made on the last day at $20.28. However, the high for the rebound took place the following session at $21.52.
Lyft Gives Some Gains Back: The issue peaked just over a week ahead of the S&P 500 and the momentum to the downside accelerated once the index begin its retreat in earnest.
On Thursday, the issue filled its void in price down to $14.14 falling to $13.71, and rebounded to end last week at $14.60.
The catalyst for the leap in price Aug. 2 was the result of the company reporting better-than-expected second-quarter sales and an increase in active riders of 15.9% year-over-year.
The Ax: Before the opening Tuesday, BofA Securities analyst Michael McGovern initiated coverage on the issue with an Underperform rating and $14 price target. That was only the third analyst rating change for the year for the issue.
The previous one was on March 2, when Benchmark upgraded the issue from Sell to Hold while maintaining its $19 price target.
LYFT Price Action: Early on in the session Tuesday, the issue was boosted by a rally in the broad market and actually opened the session slightly higher. It immediately peaked one penny later at $14.69 and sharply reversed course with the broad market.
The ensuing decline took the issue very close to last week's low but found buyers at $13.77 vs. last week's low of $13.71. Lyft was trading actively in the lower $14 handle Tuesday afternoon.
That is quite some distance from its current closing low price for the move from Friday at $14.60.
Lyft Moving Forward: The good news is the issue has for the time being put in a double bottom at the $13.75 area and is attempting to rebound. Further technical significance is added to this area as the issue had three closes under $14 before it embarked on its August rally.
The bad news is that Lyft is on course to post its lowest closing price since its recent peak by a considerable margin.
Photo courtesy of Lyft.
