PTON Stock Alert: Why Is Peloton Plunging 20% Today?

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The stock market is seeing an unexpected twist this afternoon. One of the companies hailed as an early pandemic winner has an important announcement. At-home fitness innovator Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON) has halted production. As the building of its once-trendy exercise bikes and treadmills has ground to a halt, PTON stock has plunged. This raises plenty of questions, but so far, there don’t seem to be many answers available for investors. The company’s recent performance has been far from reassuring.

Peloton (PTON stock) sign on city storefront

Source: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com

What’s Happening With PTON Stock

As of this writing, PTON stock has plunged nearly 20% today. Today’s drop has sent shares into the red by more than 36% for the month.
Within the past six months, the stock has fallen by almost 80%.

This is hardly the first time in 2022 that PTON stock been forced down. The company saw more bad news last week when it was removed from the Nasdaq-100. Today’s news, though, paints a picture that makes the company look even worse.

Why It Matters

According to internal company documents obtained by CNBC, the company is pausing production for February and March 2022. Peloton has apparently cited cost control measures as the primary motivation behind the decision. It’s hardly surprising that demand for at-home fitness tools as expensive as Peloton’s would be declining.

InvestorPlace contributor Larry Ramer recently hypothesized that every major macroeconomic trend of 2022 was working against Peloton. As he noted:

“With strong macro trends continuing to become more negative for Peloton and PTON stock by the day, the shares have much more room to fall.”

This turn of events certainly helps support his argument. Other experts, such as InvestorPlace contributor Patrick Sanders have also advised against any type of bullish play on Peloton stock. Few experts had any faith in the company, but after what we’ve seen today, it’s hard to imagine that anyone will be taking action other than offloading shares as quickly as possible.

What It Means

In the case of early pandemic plays, it is true that the higher they fly, the harder they fall. While Peloton soared as consumers were forced to work out from home, many have returned to gyms. Now, Peloton faces a steep challenge of embracing a new industry landscape.

Wall Street will be watching Peloton stock from here for signs of that evolution.

On the date of publication, Patrick Sanders did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Samuel O’Brient is a Reporter for InvestorPlace, where his work focuses primarily on financial markets, global economic trends, and public policy. O’Brient writes a weekly column on recent political news that investors should be following.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2022/01/pton-stock-alert-why-is-peloton-plunging-20-today/.

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