Lyft shares shed about 6% after the ride-sharing app reported lackluster fourth-quarter results and offered weak bookings guidance as it lowers prices to keep up with competition.

The company reported revenues of $1.55 billion, versus the $1.56 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Revenues grew 27% from $1.22 billion a year ago. Bookings, which measures the charges posed to customers for rides and services, came in at $4.28 billion, behind a $4.32 billion FactSet estimate.

“I think what the future holds is great, because it’s a huge market, and we’re doing a great job,” CEO David Risher told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. “We got to figure out how to get the traders on the bus.”

The company did beat expectations on fourth-quarter earnings, reporting an adjusted 29 cents per share compared to the LSEG expectation of 22 cents per share. The figure excluded certain amortization and compensation charges, and a gain from terminating a lease.

Lyft also said it anticipates a slowdown in gross bookings as it grapples with a lower pricing environment. The company expects bookings to range between $4.05 billion and $4.20 billion, versus a $4.24 billion FactSet forecast.

During the earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Erin Brewer said the company lowered prices and used discounts in the end of the year to keep up with the market. Ongoing pricing headwinds could lead to a low single-digit percentage point impact on gross bookings, she added.

Brewer also said that the end of its partnership with Delta Air Lines will weigh on rides and gross bookings in the 1% to 2% range during the second quarter.

Last week, Uber shares also declined on mixed fourth-quarter results and soft guidance. The ridesharing competitor also signaled that it may take years to build out and commercialize autonomous vehicles.

Lyft reported net income of $62.8 million for the period, or 15 cents per share. That’s compared to a loss of $26.3 million a year ago, a loss of 7 cents per share.

During the fourth quarter, Lyft also recorded 24.7 million active riders, ahead of the 24.6 million StreetAccount estimate.

Alongside the results, the company announced a $500-million share repurchase plan and said it aims to roll out its Mobileye-powered taxis as soon as 2026 in Dallas.

Apple is deepening its investment in health-care research by launching a new, years-long project called the Apple Health Study, the company announced on Wednesday. 

The study will analyze how data from devices like iPhones, AirPods and Apple Watches can monitor, manage and predict changes in users’ health. It will also explore connections between different components of health, like how mental health affects heart rate, for instance. 

The Apple Health Study is the first major health research project the company has announced since it unveiled the Apple Women’s Health Study, the Apple Hearing Study and the Apple Heart and Movement Study in 2019. Those projects are ongoing, and they’ve inspired many of the health features that Apple has introduced in recent years.

Apple rolled out a hearing test in the fall, for instance, which was developed using insights from the Apple Hearing Study, the company said. 

The new study will likely influence future product development. Apple CEO Tim Cook previously said he believes health features will be the company’s “most important contribution to mankind.”

“We’re thrilled to bring forward the Apple Health Study, which will only accelerate our understanding of health and technology across the human body, both physically and mentally,” Dr. Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president of health, said in a statement. 

The Apple Health Study will be available through the company’s Research app, and participation is voluntary. Users will select each data type they’re willing to share with researchers, and they can stop sharing or completely discontinue their participation at any time. 

Apple has no access to participants’ identifiable information, the company said.  

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a research hospital, is collaborating with Apple on the study. The project will last at least five years and may expand past that.

“We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of how technology can improve our understanding of human health,” Dr. Calum MacRae, the principal investigator of the study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a statement. 

LONDON — British digital remittances company Zepz is laying off dozens of IT workers and is in the process of closing down business units in Poland and Kenya.

Roughly 200 staff members will be impacted by the redundancy measures, two employees who were made redundant told CNBC, asking to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter.

As of January, London-headquartered Zepz — formerly known as WorldRemit — had a global headcount of 1,000 people, meaning the redundancies affect around 20% of its total workforce.

The layoffs affect several IT functions at the company, including database administration, development operations and software engineering, the former employees said.

Zepz confirmed to CNBC that it was reducing headcount in order to “sustainably support the next phase of long-term strategic goals and continued growth.” The company declined to comment on the number of employees impacted by the layoffs, with a spokesperson explaining that the redundancy process was ongoing. 

“Following the successful completion of its replatforming efforts, bolstered by advanced automation and AI, Zepz has embarked on a strategic initiative to optimise operations across the organisation,” a Zepz spokesperson told CNBC by email.

“This transformation has reinforced the technology foundation and reduced the need for certain operational and technical capacities, prompting a proposed reduction in roles as part of the overall plan,” the spokesperson added.

Zepz has been touted as one of Britain’s fintech darlings. The company was founded by Ismail Ahmed, a Somalia-born British entrepreneur who fled the country during the Somali Civil War. Ahmed today serves as the company’s non-executive chairman.

The group was renamed Zepz following the acquisition of money transfer platform Sendwave in 2020, with the brand and WorldRemit coming under one parent company.

This isn’t the first time Zepz has cut a spate of roles to save on costs. In 2023, Zepz laid off 420 employees, which accounted for about 26% of its global headcount at the time. Later that year, Zepz slashed a further 30 roles across its people and marketing functions.

Zepz has long been touted as a potential IPO candidate, but a timeline for this is unclear. Counting the likes of Accel, TCV and Leapfrog as investors, the startup was valued at $5 billion in 2021. The company announced a $267 million funding round last year.

Zepz faces competition from several notable digital payments players including PayPal, Wise, Revolut and Remitly.

WATCH: We now have ‘a whole generation’ of fintechs preparing for IPOs, says QED Investors’ Nigel Morris