Peloton’s Recovery Problem

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 4, 10:30AM EST

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Peloton’s Recovery Problem — © Scott Heins / Getty Images

Peloton posted earnings that cheered Wall Street. But, membership was flat, and revenue dropped 30% year over year to $793 million. The company lost $335 million. While that might be considered progress, Peloton has miles to go. CEO Barry McCarthy called it a “turning point.” It will take more than one quarter to show if that is true.

Peloton shares rallied but gave back some of the gains. These may have been day traders. But the stock is still down 30% over the last year, compared to a drop of 13% by the NASDAQ.

Peloton still has questions to answer. Has the move back to gyms changed its future permanently? Has the move to channels that include Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods tarnished its brand? (Netflix tries to ruin Peloton.)

And has its used bike business cut back on new bike sales?

Peloton is among a long line of brands that had a bright beginning. The world changed underneath it, and the brand barely survived. Now, it has to prove that it can do better than go sideways. (These are the most popular exercises every year since 1956.)

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.