Peloton Can’t Stop Destroying Itself

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Aug 9, 10:46AM EDT

Key Points

Peloton Posted More Bad Earnings
The Company Keeps Getting Smaller

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Peloton Can’t Stop Destroying Itself — © Andrei Stanescu / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Peloton (NASDAQ: PTON) bikes were popular among people who could use them and afford them at home. Once the pandemic ended, the theory goes, people went back to gyms. Whatever the reason, Peloton’s stock is down 89% in the last five years. The S&P 500 is 91% higher.

Peloton has tried a number of things to recover. For a while, new prosperity might have been found from selling its equipment at Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE : DKS | DKS Price Prediction). Then it cut a deal with Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). It also set up an arrangement to have its bikes at Hilton Hotels.

Peloton posted heavy losses from 2022 to 2024. It may have turned a corner, but its latest financials show it is too early to say. Its revenue for the most recently reported quarter was $610 million, down 6.6%. How much smaller can it get? The chance of a turnaround is unlikely.

Peloton did squeak out the tiniest of net incomes at $21.6 million. It does not make up for the hundreds of millions of dollars the company has lost. The company also said its revenue for the year would shrink.

CEO Peter Stern made the oddest of comments, “A profound shift is underway in how we define a life well-lived.” Thank you for nothing, Mr. Stern.

Mr. Stern could also not help laying off what CNBC says is about 6% of staff. It is part of a plan to cut another $100 million in expenses. Clearly the company believes it is in bad shape. To make matters worse, Peloton will be affected by tariffs.

Stern might as well leave. There is no reason for Peloton to bother with another CEO who can’t save the company.

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.