Saturday, March 30, 2019

"Even hedge funds investing in Lyft don’t believe in its long-term prospects"

From Recode, March 28 i.e. pre-pop::
A new survey sheds light on what hedge funds think about the ride-sharing IPO.
Investors are excited for Lyft to go public.
So many are clamoring for Lyft’s stock that the bankers bringing the company public have raised its price. But that doesn’t mean investors think the company will be successful in the long run. Indeed, the hedge funds that are investing in Lyft aren’t particularly thrilled about its longterm prospects.
Some 30 percent of hedge funds are bullish about Lyft, the ride-sharing underdog that’s going public this week, according to a survey conducted last week of 40 hedge funds by Titan Invest, a portfolio investment app. But most of those are focused on how the stock will perform in the near term, not necessarily how well Lyft as a company will perform a few years from now.

The primary reasons for optimism were non-fundamental ones like “scarcity value” and “investor demand.” In other words, Lyft is the first ride-sharing company to hit the stock market, having gotten the jump on its bigger rival Uber, and investors are excited about a shiny new tech stock. (Uber has also filed for an IPO and is expected to price next month.)

“Short-term stock prices are not necessarily tied to fundamentals,” Titan Director of Research & Operations Vincent Ning told Recode. “For shorter-term funds, they could be out of the name by the end of the day Friday” — that is, the first day Lyft is expected to trade on public markets....MUCH MORE
And from MarketWatch:
Lyft stock pops on first day of trading in encouraging sign for unicorn pipeline
Lyft’s stock LYFT, +8.74%  closed up 8.7% at $78.29