Why Lyft Stock Cruised to a 5% Gain This Week

News of a fresh business partnership and a pair of analyst price target hikes put some acceleration in Lyft's (NASDAQ: LYFT) stock over the past few days. The rideshare company's stock experienced a 5% increase across the week, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Pulling up to the Curb

That bullish journey started on Monday, when Lyft and ride-hailing platform developer Curb announced they had agreed to a strategic partnership. Under its terms, Lyft riders will be able to connect to Curb's taxi network via that company's Curb Flow platform.

Image source: Getty Images.

Lyft did not provide any financial details of this tie-up, but the deal is sure to increase bookings through its system (and, surely, revenue).

Compounding that for Lyft were those two analyst price target raises, which were inspired more by the company's third-quarter earnings release posted the previous week.

One of the raisers was Mizuho's Lloyd Walmsley, who lifted his Lyft fair-value assessment to $27 per share from $24, although he maintained his neutral recommendation. According to reports, the pundit wrote that while the quarter was mixed for the company, its fourth-quarter guidance -- in which it predicted at least a roughly 17% year-over-year rise in gross bookings -- makes its prospects brighter.

Is this a good long-term ride?

These were positive developments for Lyft, to be sure, but I'm not personally sold on the long-term viability of the rideshare space. Before long, autonomous vehicles could be commonplace on our streets, and so far it seems that others -- notably Alphabet's Waymo -- have been making strides in this area. I'm not as excited about Lyft or its peers.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool recommends Lyft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.