Peloton shares hit all-time low after connected fitness company posts another loss, lowers guidance
FILE - A Peloton logo is seen on the company’s stationary bicycle on Nov. 19, 2019, in San Francisco, Calif. Peloton sank to its lowest price on record Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024 after it reported another loss and gave investors a lukewarm forecast as the connected exercise company continues to struggle following its pandemic hot streak. Sales fell $744 million in the second quarter, a 6% decline from a year ago and a whopping 34% drop from two years ago. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Peloton sank to its lowest price on record Thursday after it reported another loss and gave investors a lukewarm forecast as the connected exercise company continues to struggle following its pandemic hot streak.
Sales fell to $744 million in the second quarter, which company executives consider its most important quarter. That amounts to a 6% decline from a year ago and a whopping 34% fall from two years ago. New York-based Peloton lost 54 cents per share in the period and hasn’t posted a quarterly per-share profit in three years.
Peloton is projecting fourth-quarter revenue between $700 and $725 million, below analyst forecasts of $750 million. The company also dialed back its full-year sales guidance, to a range between $2.68 billion and $2.75 billion, down from its previous forecast of $2.8 billion.
Shares in Peloton fell another 23% in midday trading Thursday, to $4.27. A year ago, shares were more than $16 each. They peaked in early 2021 at more than $170 each.
The company said it was ditching a co-branded experiment with the University of Michigan after it failed to entice the school’s boosters and alumni to buy the company’s premium Bike+ sporting the school’s logo and colors. The limited edition stationary bike is still listed on Peloton’s web site with a price tag of $2,795.
“What seemed like a good idea didn’t deliver,” Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy wrote in a letter to shareholders.
Peloton enjoyed incredible sales growth during the height of the coronavirus pandemic and its share price multiplied by more than five times in 2020 amid lockdowns. But sales of its pricey bikes and treadmills began to slow in 2021 as vaccines gave people more freedom to get out of their homes, including visits to the gym.
Early in 2022, CEO Barry McCarthy replaced Peloton founder John Foley to right a business that made numerous stumbles, from marketing missteps to recalls. Last year, the company announced a significant rebrand, shedding its identity as a seller of luxury exercise bikes and equipment while shifting toward an image of a more inclusive health technology company.
Last fall, Peloton and athletic wear maker Lululemon announced a five-year partnership with the interactive fitness company, becoming the exclusive digital fitness content provider for Lululemon, which became the primary athletic apparel partner to Peloton. The deal also effectively closed the curtain on Lululemon’s connected fitness device, Mirror, which it acquired in June of 2020, just months into the COVID-19 pandemic.