On January 8, 2024, people were working out at a Planet Fitness location in Alexandria, Virginia.
As the gym operators had warned that the customers are becoming more and more cost-conscious, the company stated that it was raising the price of basic memberships for new customers for the first time since 1998.
Starting this summer, Classic membership will be $15 per month for new members. “For life of membership,” existing members will continue to pay $10 a month; Planet Fitness disclosed on Thursday when it released its quarterly earnings report.
Outgoing Chief Financial Officer Tom Fitzgerald said that “It will take some time for the benefits of this price adjustment to expand margins in our stores because we are only targeting new classic card members with hikes.”
The change follows months of price testing across several markets nationwide. This summer, Planet Fitness also plans to begin testing higher prices on its top-tier memberships. These start at $24.99 per month and include all Planet Fitness locations as well as digital content and other extras.
The move comes after the company posted lower-than-expected Q1 revenue versus peers and reduced guidance for FY22.Latest quarter’s results were better than expected and membership growth was strong.
Planet Fitness attracts younger budget conscious consumers while lifetime members tend to be older wealthier fitness enthusiasts
According to Craig Benson, interim CEO who is quoted in the company’s earnings report: “We face a number of headwinds that impact our results including consumer focus shifting towards savings during New Year’s period while being concerned about increasing Covid19 cases among others.”
He also mentioned that their national advertising campaign did not have as wide an appeal among consumers as anticipated.
However, analysts still see positive catalysts for the company ahead despite these warnings.
“Today’s results were not as weak as feared resulting into a guidance cut,” Piper Sandler analyst Korinne Wolfmeyer has noted. “There are now two key changes required to re-fuel the stock’s rally, i.e. a new CEO and white card pricing.”
Piper Sandler maintains a “buy” rating on Planet Fitness stock with a price target of $80. The stock price is currently about $68 per share, rising about 9% on Thursday.
Wall Street bullish on Planet Fitness’ turnaround On June 10th, Colleen Keatinghe took over as incoming CEO.
“We think the new CEO’s past experience in building brands and leading consumer-facing companies will be instrumental here,” Wolfmeier said.
