WW CEO on earnings beat: People are 'reappraising' their health during COVID-19

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi and Alexis Christoforous discuss WW International’s recent earnings report.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: WW International, otherwise known as Weight Watchers, out with their earnings. They were a beat. And my co-host, Brian Sozzi, had a chance to catch up with the CEO, Mindy Grossman, who's a friend of the show. What did she have to say about our trends right now, a sort of human behavior during this pandemic, Brian?

BRIAN SOZZI: Well, you know, Jeffrey put out a good chart this morning, Alexis, showing the rise in digital subscriptions for Weight Watchers during the pandemic, and they're going up. In the third quarter, digital subscription for Weight Watchers went up 23 and 1/2 percent. Overall, they ended the third quarter 4.7 million subscribers, up 5% year over year, but digital continues to drive this business. And I'm actually surprised to see the stock go up about 1 and 1/2 percent.

You know, Mindy and I talked at length about their pivot to digital. And the Street may still think of Weight Watchers as just operating lots of studios and retail focus, but that's not where the company is going. It is turning into a higher margin, digital first business.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I mean, speaking of those studios, did she mention if they're going to close any more of those brick and mortar Weight Watcher studios?

BRIAN SOZZI: Mindy stopped short of that one, Alexis. She has been closing studio locations over the past year. Right now, I believe they have closed to 850, which also includes 250 locations inside of hotels. But retail is not the future of Weight Watchers. It's digital first, and we've talked to Mindy many, many times here on the show. You could tell she continues to [INAUDIBLE] new initiatives, on the app most recently with Zoom.