© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Oprah Winfrey poses throughout a press name for “The Shade Purple” on the Empire State Constructing in New York Metropolis, U.S., December 12, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Picture
(Reuters) -Shares of WW Worldwide (NASDAQ:), also referred to as WeightWatchers, took a pounding on Thursday as the corporate disclosed that superstar shareholder Oprah Winfrey would exit its board later this 12 months and donate her inventory within the weight administration agency.
The exit of the media icon, who has been a board member since 2015, comes at a time when WW is struggling to show a revenue. The inventory fell practically 23.2% to $2.93 in early buying and selling and has extra misplaced greater than half its worth to date this 12 months.
Winfrey will donate her WW shares to the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition, WW stated.
She owned 1.13 million shares value $6.34 million as of Jan. 1, LSEG information confirmed.
Winfrey’s donation would assist “remove any perceived battle of curiosity round her taking weight reduction drugs,” the weight-loss companies agency stated on late Wednesday.
The discuss present host stated final 12 months that she makes use of prescription treatment to handle her weight.
Shares of the New York Metropolis-based firm have additionally been damage as a consequence of “exacerbated issues” round its progress prospects and liquidity, Barclays analyst Stephanie Davis stated.
The inventory had greater than doubled in worth final 12 months on hopes for a lift from its acquisition of telehealth platform Sequence, which marked its entry into the profitable marketplace for prescription weight problems medicine, provided by Novo Nordisk (NYSE:) and Eli Lilly (NYSE:).
However the firm’s 2024 gross sales forecast of $830 million to $860 million – which got here in under analyst expectations of $896.2 million – considerably dashed these hopes.
WW Worldwide has a decrease ahead price-to-earnings a number of – a typical benchmark to worth shares – of 13.55 in contrast with 17.21 for rival USANA Well being (NYSE:).
