Ride sharing service Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q2 CY2025, but sales rose 10.6% year on year to $1.59 billion. Its GAAP profit of $0.10 per share was significantly above analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Lyft (LYFT) Q2 CY2025 Highlights:
- Revenue: $1.59 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.61 billion (10.6% year-on-year growth, 1.5% miss)
- EPS (GAAP): $0.10 vs analyst estimates of $0.04 (significant beat)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $129.4 million vs analyst estimates of $124.4 million (8.1% margin, 4.1% beat)
- EBITDA guidance for Q3 CY2025 is $135 million at the midpoint, in line with analyst expectations
- Operating Margin: 0.2%, up from -1.9% in the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow Margin: 20.7%, up from 19.4% in the previous quarter
- Active Riders: 26.1 million, up 2.4 million year on year
- Market Capitalization: $6.10 billion
“We delivered off-the-charts performance, resulting in our strongest quarter ever,” said Lyft CEO David Risher.
Company Overview
Founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer as a long-distance intercity carpooling company Zimride, Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) operates a ridesharing network in the US and Canada.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can experience short-term success, but top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years. Luckily, Lyft’s sales grew at an impressive 18.2% compounded annual growth rate over the last three years. Its growth beat the average consumer internet company and shows its offerings resonate with customers, a helpful starting point for our analysis.
This quarter, Lyft’s revenue grew by 10.6% year on year to $1.59 billion but fell short of Wall Street’s estimates.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 12.7% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last three years. Despite the slowdown, this projection is above average for the sector and implies the market is baking in some success for its newer products and services.
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Active Riders
User Growth
As a gig economy marketplace, Lyft generates revenue growth by expanding the number of services on its platform (e.g. rides, deliveries, freelance jobs) and raising the commission fee from each service provided.
Over the last two years, Lyft’s active riders, a key performance metric for the company, increased by 10.3% annually to 26.1 million in the latest quarter. This growth rate is solid for a consumer internet business and indicates people are excited about its offerings. 
In Q2, Lyft added 2.4 million active riders, leading to 10.1% year-on-year growth. The quarterly print isn’t too different from its two-year result, suggesting its new initiatives aren’t accelerating user growth just yet.
Revenue Per User
Average revenue per user (ARPU) is a critical metric to track because it measures how much the company earns in transaction fees from each user. This number also informs us about Lyft’s take rate, which represents its pricing leverage over the ecosystem, or "cut" from each transaction.
Lyft’s ARPU growth has been excellent over the last two years, averaging 9.3%. Its ability to increase monetization while growing its active riders at such a fast rate reflects the strength of its platform, as its users are spending significantly more than last year. 
This quarter, Lyft’s ARPU clocked in at $60.85. It was flat year on year, worse than the change in its active riders.
Key Takeaways from Lyft’s Q2 Results
We enjoyed seeing Lyft beat analysts’ EBITDA expectations this quarter. We were also glad it expanded its number of users. On the other hand, its revenue slightly missed. Overall, this was a weaker quarter. The stock traded down 3.8% to $13.50 immediately after reporting.
Is Lyft an attractive investment opportunity right now? What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free.
