11:30 AM EDT, 08/07/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Lyft ( LYFT ) unexpectedly swung to a profit in the second quarter year over year amid strong demand for its ride-hailing services while the company's core profitability guidance for the the ongoing three-month period indicated a sequential decline.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization is expected to be in a range of $90 million to $95 million for the third quarter, lower than the second-quarter reading of $102.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin, which is calculated as a percentage of gross bookings, is pegged at roughly 2.3%, a decline from 2.6% in the June quarter.

Gross bookings, a key indicator of the scale and impact of its overall platform, is set to come in between $4 billion and $4.1 billion in the third quarter. In the June quarter, the metric advanced 17% year over year to $4.02 billion.

The stock declined 12% during Wednesday trading.

"We are reiterating our expectations for the full year 2024 and continue to expect total rides growth in the mid-teens year-over-year with gross bookings to grow slightly faster than rides on a year-over-year basis," Chief Financial Officer Erin Brewer said during an earnings call, according to a Capital IQ transcript.

The company reported earnings of $0.01 per share for the second quarter, compared with a loss of $0.30 the year before. Wall Street was expecting a per-share loss of $0.03 on a GAAP basis. Revenue soared 41% year over year to $1.44 billion, topping the Capital IQ-polled consensus estimate of $1.39 billion.

"We also had record rides in (the second quarter), including the most scheduled rides in the company's history, and we saw record bike and scooter rides, especially e-bike rides in our largest market, New York City," Chief Executive David Risher said on the call.

Lyft's ( LYFT ) active riders rose 10% from last year to 23.7 million during the quarter. Rides increased by 15% to 205.3 million.

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