What happened
Investors couldn't quite get over the hump on Hump Day with shares of Peloton Interactive (PTON -2.24%). Hardly for the first time this year, the provider of connected fitness equipment saw its share price take a hit from an analyst's price target cut. Investors might also be getting nervous on the eve of the company's upcoming earnings release.
So what
Unfortunately for Peloton and its stockholders, Wednesday's price target slicer was the influential Bank of America.
The bank's Justin Post reduced his estimate on Peloton's value to $16 per share, from the previous $19. But he is maintaining his buy recommendation on the stock.
The reasons behind Post's move weren't immediately clear. It's not unusual for prognosticators to tweak their price targets just before a company reports its latest earnings. That's the case here, as Peloton is slated to unveil its first-quarter 2023 results shortly before market open on Thursday.
Now what
The exercise-class streamer might just surprise on the upside with those figures, since expectations aren't very high, to put it bluntly.
On average, analysts tracking Peloton are expecting a fairly queasy revenue slide, to just over $650 million from the year-ago quarter's $805 million. The company's bottom line is anticipated to improve yet still land well in the red, at a loss of $0.64 per share against the year-ago shortfall of $1.25.
Peloton will surely be glad to see the back of 2022, which has been arguably the worst year in its history. It's coping with the departure of its co-founders and a decline in sales now that we're (hopefully) moving out of the pandemic. In many ways, it's a business struggling to get on its feet, so perhaps those diminished expectations for the first quarter are entirely realistic.
