Lyft stock gains after Northcoast upgrades, says company could be M&A target

Shares of Lyft Inc. are up nearly 7% in Monday trading after a Northcoast Research analyst upgraded the stock to buy from neutral. Northcoast's John Healy is encouraged by the latest results from Uber Technologies Inc. , which suggest to him that "competitive dynamics and unit economics of the 'ride business' are sound." His survey work also indicates that Lyft's "competitive position" is improving, meaning that the company could be picking up share. Finally, Healy floated the possibility that Lyft "could be increasingly active from an M&A standpoint" as the race for autonomous-driving technologies heats up. Lyft is due to report quarterly results after Tuesday's closing bell. The stock has added 16% over the past month, as the S&P 500 has risen 2.4%.

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