Peloton shares collapse, momentum for its at-home fitness equipment slows
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Peloton Interactive Inc.’s stationary bikes are on display in the showroom at Madison Avenue, New York on Wednesday, December 18, 2019.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
PelotonShares fell more than 30 percent in premarket trade Friday. The shares are on track to reach a 17 month low after the maker of at-home exercise equipment. slashed its annual sales forecastUp to $1Billion
Peloton’s poor fiscal first quarter financial report, which was released on Thursday by Peloton Investments Group, led at least three Wall Street firms to downgrade the stock.
While the company — and its share price — experienced incredible growth a year ago due to stay-at-home trends instilled by the pandemic, that momentum is fading and more consumers are heading back to gyms. Planet FitnessOn Thursday, for instance, the affirmed that it has increased its membership. are almost back to a pre-pandemic peak. This stock also reached an all time high in the news.
John Foley, CEO of Peloton said that his team has never experienced a more challenging operating environment to help them achieve their expected results.
Foley said that Peloton’s website traffic has been declining faster than it had anticipated in recent months. Foley said that the brick-and-mortar store’s sales have also been disappointing.
Peloton put even more pressure on its profits by reducing the original Bike’s price by 20% in August. The company’s executives claimed that while the price reduction has helped Bike sales accelerate, it also means that fewer customers are buying its Bike+ model.
Peloton stated that it is looking for “material improvements” in its fiscal outlook 2022, which also includes significant adjustments to the hiring plans.
Truist Securities analysts stated that Peloton will likely need a while to recover from the economic slowdown and increasing logistics costs.
Truist reduced its stock rating to buy from hold on Friday and decreased its price target for Peloton shares from $120 to $68. Stock closed Thursday night at $86.06, after having fallen 43% in the previous year.
Credit Suisse has lowered its target price from $148 to $112.
Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a note that they believe the demand is falling on all fronts, leading them to question when there might be a return on all of their capital. The connected fitness opportunity may still exist in the long term but it seems more challenging to achieve that goal.
Peloton anticipates having between 3.35 million to 3.45 million connected subscribers for fitness by June’s end, a drop from the earlier target of 3.63million.
—CNBC’s Michael BloomContributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned for new updates.
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