When Lyft Inc. put out its earnings release Tuesday afternoon, the ride-hailing platform forecast a gain this year in an adjusted profit metric. But during the company’s earnings call later in the day, management issued a correction, saying that increase was, in fact, smaller than what it said the first time around.
But during the call, Chief Financial Officer Erin Brewer said the company was expecting a 50 basis-point expansion. When asked by an analyst to reconcile the two figures, she said the correct figure was, in fact, 50. Brad Foster, a securities litigation partner at the law firm Haynes Boone, said that the situation, as it stood now, likely wouldn’t represent a legal risk.
Lyft LYFT, -2.18% said it expected percentage growth in rides in the mid-teens this year. That was better than FactSet forecasts for around 11%. Chief Executive David Risher, in an interview, said that commute rides jumped 27% during the quarter. He also said that the segment that handles those commute rides — for employees at companies like Starbucks Corp., SBUX, -1.68% FedEx Corp. FDX, -3.29% and Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL, -1.40% — accounts for more than 20% of its rides per year overall.
Risher said that, similarly, Lyft was contending with higher insurance costs. But he said the company hadn’t changed its strategy on pricing in response to any moves from Uber.