Lyft’s revenues double, losses quintuple and prospects darken
When Lyft was doing their road show there were a few analysts who had price targets of $45 as Lyfts fair value at IPO with an acknowledgement that the amount of shares available would double, and possibly triple when all shares were off restriction, meaning that the $45 price target was a best case and we would probably see far lower once people can sell.<p>This is a company that has maybe 33 million shares outstanding now with about 27 million of them being sold short. So they have an enormous short bet against them.  We see borrow rates as high as 30% for borrowing shares to short with  no real stable borrow available.<p>However, due to the enormous amount of those short shares being rehypothicated(relent), Lyft is vulnerable to a quick upwards price run if those long sellers ask for their shares back.  That would cause a run on those shares as they may be lent out multiple times by the same bank.<p>So whenever someone ask why you don&#x27;t short an individual stock its always valid to answer that you believe you are right in the long term but the short term could wipe  you out if you shorted.<p>As a quick edit, uber is now indicating its opening at a range of 45.50-46.50, given that the IPO price was $45, it looks like the underwriters will have some work to do and will almost certainly exercise their green shoe option.<p>So maybe wallstreet is wising up to money losing companies or Uber learned from Lyft that a slow and steady approach to their share price would be better long term for them?