WW stock bounces off lowest close since before Oprah took a stake, even after another disappoint earnings report
Shares of WW International Inc. , formerly known as Weight Watchers, bounced 7.2% in afternoon trading, after closing the previous session at the lowest price since Oct. 16, 2015, which was the day before the wellness and weight management company announced that Oprah Winfrey had taken an equity stake. The stock's rally comes despite the company reporting late Tuesday fourth-quarter results, in which both adjusted profit and revenue missed expectations for a third-straight quarter, and provided a full-year financial outlook that was below forecasts, according to FactSet data. Separately, the company disclosed in its annual report that it had 7,700 employees as of Dec. 31, 2021, most of whom were part-time employees, down 23% from about 10,000 employees at the end of 2020 and less than half the 17,000 employees it had at the end of 2019. WW's stock, which has tumbled 36.1% year to date, had slumped 33.9% in 2021 and sunk 36.1% in 2020. In comparison, the S&P 500 has lost 7.7% this year, after rallying 26.9% last year and running up 16.3% in 2020.
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