Shares of home-fitness heavyweight Peloton rose by double digits Wednesday after the company proudly declared it was losing less money.
Wall Street was apparently in agreement with CEO Barry McCarthy, who said Peloton had reached a possible “turning point” in recovering from its post-pandemic struggles.
“This was by far our best quarterly performance in my 12 months with Peloton,” he said in a letter to shareholders.
“Most of the executive team is also relatively new to Peloton and new to their teams. Given what we’ve already accomplished, imagine what’s possible once the team finds its groove.”
Fair enough.
But the company isn’t out of the woods.
Peloton reported a net loss for the quarter of $335.4 million, which, if you want to be a cup-is-half-full kind of person, is better than the $439.4 million loss reported a year ago.
The company has been spilling red ink for eight straight quarters.
Revenue over the last three months was down, as were sales of exercise machines. Subscription revenue, on the other hand, rose by 22%.
McCarthy is a former Spotify and Netflix exec. Since he took the top spot at Peloton, he’s moved aggressively to cut costs by reducing the workforce and partnering with Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods to expand hardware sales.
Losing less money is a step in the right direction. But from an investment point of view, there’s still a big problem.
Losing money.
