What happened
Hardly for the first time in recent months, the stock of Peloton Interactive (PTON -2.24%) landed in negative territory on Tuesday. The shares slid by 0.4%, against the nearly 1% gain of the frothy S&P 500 index, on the back of a high-level executive change.
So what
In a regulatory filing, Peloton divulged that it has appointed a new chief financial officer (CFO), Elizabeth Coddington, who will replace Jill Woodworth effective next Monday, June 13.
Image source: Getty Images.
According to her LinkedIn page, the incoming CFO had worked at Amazon's Amazon Web Services (AWS) since 2015 in a series of financial roles. Coddington's last position at the company was vice president for AWS Services.
Previous to her tenure at Amazon, Coddington was CFO at Walmart and was with Netflix for nearly five years, where she last worked as vice president for planning and analysis.
Peloton wrote in the filing that Woodworth's departure "is not the result of any disagreement with the company on any subject, including its operations, policies or practices." At the same time, however, it did not pinpoint why she is leaving. Under a "transition agreement," she will provide finance-related consulting services to the company through mid-September.
Now what
Coddington certainly has the experience to guide the finance team at Peloton, although given the specialty consumer goods company's recent struggles, this surely won't be an easy job.
The transition seems to be going smoothly, but investors are never comforted when a top manager departs a company unexpectedly -- particularly when that company is experiencing difficulties, as is Peloton.
