What happened
WW International (WW 10.06%), whose core asset is veteran dieting service operator WeightWatchers, was rising this week. According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, the company's share price had risen by a blistering 28.5% week to date as of early Friday morning. Two new analyst takes on the stock published on Tuesday were the key reasons for the jump.
So what
Of the pair, the more important was the one from Morgan Stanley's Lauren Schenk. She upgraded her WW International recommendation; it's now an overweight (i.e., buy), where previously it stood at equal weight (hold). Schenk upped her price target, too, cranking it more than 2 times higher to $13 per share from her previous fair-value estimation of $5.
The Morgan Stanley prognosticator characterized the company as an "undervalued turnaround story," with a core business that is improving supplemented by a recent acquisition, Sequence. This is a potentially excellent fit for WW International, as it's a telemedicine service that connects users with doctors who can prescribe popular weight-loss drugs currently available on the market.
Earlier on Tuesday, D.A. Davidson also got more bullish on the company, albeit far more modestly. Its analyst Linda Bolton Weiser raised her price target by $1 to $11 per share. She maintained her existing buy recommendation.
Now what
Current weight-loss developments do seem to favor WW International, particularly the public's great interest in drugs Ozempic and Wegovy (which utilize the same drug, semaglutide, at different doses).
