Lyft's $25 Billion Valuation Puts Firm in Elite Company

Confetti falls as John Zimmer, center left, and Logan Green, center right, ring the opening bell during the company's IPO in Los Angeles, on March 29. — Confetti falls as John Zimmer, center left, and Logan Green, center right, ring the opening bell during the company's IPO in Los Angeles, on March 29.
Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg

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By Esha Dey

March 29, 2019 at 4:54 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

With Lyft Inc. surging as much as 23 percent on its first day of trading on Friday, the market value of the ride hailing company is now in the vicinity of $25 billion - an elite league that includes Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., Southwest Airlines Co., Twitter Inc. and Spotify Technology S.A.

While the trading patterns of the first few days after an initial public offering may not always be a good indicator of where the company’s valuation might settle after the initial euphoria, on an average, they seem to be fairly accurate. Over the past year, IPOs that rose in their first session are now trading 27 percent above their IPO prices on average, weighted by deal size. But new issues that dropped in their debut are now trading just 0.3 percent above their IPO prices.