Lyft falls below IPO price on second day of trading

Lyft (LYFT) shares quickly dipped below the $72 mark in early trading Monday, erasing all gains from its highly anticipated Wall Street debut on Friday. It ended the day at $69.01 a share, a decline of nearly 12%.

The company initially saw shares spike by more than 20% over its IPO price on Friday as investors flocked to buy up shares from the first ride-hailing company to go public. But Lyft stock ended Friday up 8.7%.

The dip may bring back memories of Facebook (FB), which fell below its IPO price on the second day of trading after lackluster gains in its debut.

Although analysts have expressed optimism about Lyft's market share gains relative to Uber and the potential of the broader ride-hailing market, there are some red flags for the company.

Lyft's net loss climbed to $911 million in 2018, which is more than any other US startup has lost in the year prior to its IPO. Uber lost $1.8 billion in 2018.

"This is staggering what we're seeing here. Staggering," Kathleen Smith, principal at Renaissance Capital, which manages IPO-focused exchange-traded funds, previously told CNN Business. "The profitless prosperity model doesn't work in the public market."

Lyft's Wall Street debut is seen as a bellweather for the long list of billion-dollar tech startups expected to go public later this year, including Pinterest, Slack, Postmates and Uber.

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