During trading hours Tuesday shares of Weight Watchers International Inc. jumped more than 20% after Oprah Winfrey tweeted a video about her personal weight loss. It is the second time Oprah has sent Weight Watchers stock soaring by making a public statement about the program. Oprah owns roughly 15 percent of the company and has served as a member of the board since October 2015.
ZeroHedge humorously notes:
Back in October, after it was revealed that Oprah Winfrey had bought a 10% stake (subsequently boosted to 15%) in fad food diet company Weight Watchers, and after the media diva swallowed the margin accounts of thousands of shorts (75% of WTW’s float was short at the time), we said that a simple way to profit from Oprah Winfrey gaining weight was to go short WTW stock.
Considering that the stock was then trading around $15, and had since dropped back to a far more realistic level of $11, one could imagine that Oprah did in fact gain a little weight.
Of course, the trade could also easily go the other way as well, and as Bloomberg reports, Oprah proudly announced today that she had lost 26 pounds while on the Weight Watcher diet:
“I lost 26 pounds, and I have eaten bread every single day,” Winfrey said in a video posted to Twitter.
……………….
But while we wait to see who has the last laugh, one thing is clear: of the $12 $22 million in unbooked intraday WTW gains for Oprah’s 15% stake, this amounts to about $460,000860,000 per pound of weight lost. If only the rest of the mere mortals had a comparable incentive to get fit again, the American obesity epidemic would disappear overnight.
See the following visualizations which highlight the current day and 90-day performance of Weight Watchers stock, the period during which Oprah caused the share price to jump on two occasions.
Weight Watchers International Inc. (WTW) Stock Price – Current Day
Weight Watchers International Inc. (WTW) Stock Price – 90 Days
