Despite beating analyst predictions in its fourth-quarter earnings Monday, shares in Lyft Inc. dropped in after-hours trading after the company failed to move up its profitability timeline as rival Uber Technologies Inc. did Feb. 6.

For the quarter ending Dec. 31, Lyft reported revenue of $1.02 billion, up 52% from the same quarter of 2018 and the first time Lyft has booked over $1 billion in revenue in a quarter. Analysts had been predicting $984 million.

Active riders increased to 22.9 million, up 23% from a year ago, with revenue per active rider rising 23%, to $44.40.  Analysts had predicted 22.8 million and $43.19, respectively.

Lyft continues to bleed money, though at lower levels. For the quarter, Lyft reported a loss on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $130.7 million, compared with a forecast of $164 million. The figure was a significant improvement on the $238.5 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2018. Net loss came in at $256 million versus $248.9 million year-over-year, with Lyft noting that the figure included $207.3 million of stock-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses.

For the full year 2019, Lyft booked $3.6 billion in revenue versus $2.2 billion in 2018 on an adjusted loss of $651.8 million versus $888.7 million the year before.

“We significantly improved our path to profitability while simultaneously reaching critical milestones toward our long-term strategy,” Logan Green, co-founder and chief executive officer of Lyft said in a statement about the year. “Continued strength in core rideshare drove our industry-leading growth, led by product innovation and operational excellence on every facet of our robust transportation platform.

Lyft predicted revenue of $1.055 billion to $1.06 billion in the first quarter on an adjusted loss of $140 million to $145 million. For 2020, Lyft predicted revenue of $4.575 billion to $4.65 billion on an adjusted loss of $450 million to $490 million.

Although Lyft continues to grow and its losses are falling, that wasn’t enough for investors — especially after Uber surprised everyone in its earnings report last week by saying it was aiming to be profitable by the fourth quarter of 2020.

Instead, Lyft is sticking to its prediction that it will be profitable by late 2021, excluding some costs. “We believe investors trust us to make responsible decisions as we drive towards this profitability,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Roberts said in an investor call.

Lyft shared dropped 5.7% in after-hours trading, to $50.86 a share.

Photo: skellysf/Flickr