Oprah to exit Weight Watchers' board, stock plunges

WW International (WW) — formerly Weight Watchers — stock plunges after the company announced Oprah Winfrey is leaving its board of directors. While Winfrey has sat on the WW board since 2015, it was revealed she uses GLP-1 weight loss drugs despite being a vocal critic of the trend.

Yahoo Finance Live anchors Seana Smith and Brad Smith highlight WW International's fourth-quarter earnings miss, reporting massively wider-than-expected losses of $1.11 per share.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

- Weight watchers International shares are plunging off nearly 24% after announcing that Oprah will no longer serve on its board. Now, she has been serving on the company's board since 2015. Weight Watchers also reporting its most recent earnings report, forecasting full-year revenue that fell below the Street's expectations.

There is some concern about the popularity of GLP-1 and exactly what the popularity of weight loss drugs is going to do for a name like Weight Watchers here.

But digging into these numbers, Brad, that we just got from this report, you have revenue down 8% from a year ago, subscriber numbers were down 5% from just the previous quarter, falling to 3.8 million. So you have the exit of Oprah, you have the fact that sales are under pressure, not as many people are signing up for Weight Watchers.

That all begs the question as to the impact that the popularity of weight loss drugs has on Weight Watchers and what they need to do in order to offset some of those headwinds.

- Yeah. I mean, her media highness, Oprah, had also even admitted or publicly disclosed that she uses some weight loss medications. At the tail end of 2023 that news came out. So ultimately, it is one of-- and as you so rightly laid out-- it is perhaps one of the largest considerations that a Weight Watchers has to think about in terms of the number of people that are choosing other options rather than a Weight Watchers long-form program.

However, within this announcement as well they did note specifically that she has been an inspiring presence for Weight Watchers International, passionate advocate for the members, critical insights, counsel that's helped shape Weight Watchers over the last eight years as well.

It's hard to remember that this brand prior to Oprah, I mean, because Oprah really was kind of like that Midas touch on top of so many businesses. Weight Watchers was another one for an extended period of time. But then there are some other broader market factors that certainly do factor in as headwinds for the Weight Watchers business, and we'll have to see how they navigate that in this near term too.