Shares of personal wellness company WeightWatchers (NASDAQ:WW) jumped 132% in the afternoon session after the company announced plans to make it easier for its members to access Eli Lilly's FDA-approved weight loss drug Zepbound. Given the success of weight loss drugs with regulatory approval and the crackdown on knock-offs, expanding the distribution of Zepbound should accelerate adoption. Additionally, companies such as WeightWatchers should benefit from increased sales volume and greater customer loyalty as they align themselves with medically endorsed treatments.
After the initial pop the shares cooled down and closed the day at $0.73, up 78.5% from previous close.
WeightWatchers’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 111 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for WeightWatchers and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 7 months ago when the stock gained 54.1% on continued positive momentum after the company expanded its clinical weight management offerings by introducing compounded semaglutide. Semaglutide (a GLP-1 medication) is expected to provide a more accessible and affordable alternative to medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, given ongoing shortages.
WeightWatchers is down 48.6% since the beginning of the year, and at $0.74 per share, it is trading 65% below its 52-week high of $2.10 from May 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of WeightWatchers’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $28.23.
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