Shares in ride-hailing firm Lyft Inc. surged in after-hours trading after the company beat analysts’ expectations in its first-quarter earnings report.

For the quarter ended March 31, Lyft reported revenue fell 37% from a year ago, to $609 million, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to depress demand. However, revenue was up 7% from the previous quarter.

Lyft’s loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization came in at $73 million, or 35 cents per share, slightly lower than the loss of $77 million in the previous quarter but $62 million better than the company had predicted in its most recent outlook. According to CNBC, analysts had been predicting an adjusted loss of 53 cents a share on revenue of $558.7 million.

The standout in the quarter was increasing rider numbers as some U.S. states start to reopen and reduce COVID-19 restrictions. Active riders in the quarter came in at 13.5 million, up 8% from the previous quarter, while revenue per ride came in a $45.13, a little better than analysts expected.

The lower-than-expected loss figure also comes as part of a program announced by Lyft before it went public in 2019 that it intended to cut costs with an aim to be profitable by the end of 2021. The coronavirus pandemic has not made things easy for the company, since it’s still some way off from returning to the revenue numbers it was reporting pre-COVID. But Lyft is now suggesting that it will be profitable by the third quarter.

“The improvements we’ve made over the last year are paying off — we’ve built a much stronger business,” Logan Green, co-founder and chief executive officer of Lyft, said in a statement. “As the recovery continues, we are confident that we will be able to deliver strong financial results”

For the quarter ahead, Lyft said it expected revenue of between $680 million and $700 million, up 12% to 15% over the the first quarter. The revenue would also represent growth of 100% and 106% from the second quarter of 2020, a quarter in which Lyft’s revenue plunged with the onset of COVID-19.

The earnings report follows an announcement by Lyft April 26 that it’s selling its self-driving car unit to a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Co. for $550 million.

Lyft shares rose nearly 6% in after-hours trading.

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