Weight Watchers Plummets Following Mixed Q4 Earnings, Weak Guidance

Weight Watchers International, Inc WTW reported a mixed fourth-quarter earnings report on Tuesday after the close.

Adjusted earnings came in at 63 cents, beating estimates by 3 cents. Sales came in at $330.386 million, missing estimates by $16.174 million.

Weight Watchers sees full-year EPS of $1.25-$1.50, versus the consensus of $3.43. The company issued full-year 2019 sales guidance of of $1.4 billion, short of the $1.66 billion consensus estimate.

"While we are proud of our accomplishments in 2018, we had a soft start to 2019 versus last year's strong performance with the launch of WW Freestyle," said Mindy Grossman, the company's president and CEO. "Given our Winter Campaign did not recruit as expected, we have been focused on improving member recruitment trends. We quickly moved to course correct, including introducing new creative with a stronger call-to-action and further optimizing our media mix."

"Looking ahead, I'm happy to say that Oprah Winfrey will play a central role in our upcoming TV and digital marketing campaign for Spring, bringing to life a clear message on how WW is the program that works. Together with Oprah, we are also working on an initiative to galvanize and bring together communities through a series of digital and live experiences and events to accelerate WW's impact and allow us to reach new and diverse audiences."

The stock closed Tuesday at $29.57 per share. Shares were halted ahead of the earnings release. When the stock resumed trading around 4:35 p.m. ET, shares fell 30 percent.

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