Hims & Hers shares slide as costly weight-loss push squeezes margins

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 04: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on October 4, 2018 in New York City. With bond prices dropping interest rates have been surging resulting in the Dow Jones Industrials Average falling over 200 points at the close. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Hims & Hers Health’s shares fell nearly 7 per cent in premarket trading on Tuesday, as concerns over shrinking profit margins overshadowed strong subscriber growth and a raised annual revenue forecast.

The company posted second-quarter revenue on Monday that topped expectations and added more than 300,000 subscribers. However, its aggressive push into branded GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and international expansion drove up costs, swinging the quarter to a loss versus a profit a year earlier.

Wall Street analysts warned that the aggressive push for growth could be hurting profitability.

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Morningstar analyst Keonhee Kim said the subscriber growth was impressive but not enough to overlook the continued margin decline after gross margins fell for the fourth straight quarter.

While the company lifted its 2026 revenue forecast, it trimmed the top end of its adjusted core earnings outlook.

“The HIMS ramping story should continue, particularly given the inevitable peptide entry. But we still see a tough balance between spending to grow and growth, keeping our optimism limited,” Leerink Partners analyst Michael Cherny said.

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Chief financial officer Oluyemi Okupe acknowledged the trade-off on an analyst call, saying “As branded weight loss products and international revenue become a larger portion of the business, we expect gross margins will remain below the levels we have historically achieved.”

Analysts expect the increasing costs to pressure the stock. Hims shares have lost roughly 2 per cent so far this year.

Still, Barclays analyst Glen Santangelo said margins could improve in the second half of the year, despite what he called “not the better margin quarter.”

The company is targeting at least US$6.5 billion in revenue and US$1.3 billion in adjusted EBITDA by 2030.

(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)