Highlights
- Oprah Winfrey lost $117 million from her investment in Weight Watchers when the company's value tanked in 2016.
- Despite the significant loss, Winfrey still owns a significant stake in the company and has made a lot of money overall from her investment.
- Winfrey's investment in Weight Watchers made investors gain faith in the company, and she has used her business acumen to make millions for herself and others who invested at the right time.
After decades as one of the most popular talk show hosts in history, Oprah Winfrey became an absolute icon. As a result of how much fans respect Winfrey, it means a lot when she endorses something like Laura Geller’s makeup palette.
When Winfrey hasn't been busy as a media personality, she has become an incredibly accomplished business leader. Winfrey's business acumen made her a billionaire but not everything she touches turns into gold.
After Weight Watchers' stock price tanked, Winfrey reportedly lost $117 million. After taking that hit, it is fascinating to look at whether Winfrey still owns part of Weight Watchers.
How Did Oprah Winfrey Lose $117 Million From Weight Watchers?
In the modern world, it often seems like virtually everyone wants to drop weight. For that reason, when a celebrity like Brendan Fraser loses a lot of weight, onlookers want to know how they do it.
Unfortunately for Oprah Winfrey, just like a lot of people all over the world, she has struggled with her weight. The only difference is that Winfrey's weight struggles happened in front of the world, and she has been harshly judged for her body far too often.
Throughout Winfrey's career, it has often seemed like everything she has done has been for two purposes, making money and helping people. During 2015, it appeared like Winfrey found a new way to accomplish those two things at the same time.
In October 2015, Winfrey used her immense fortune to purchase 6.4 million shares of Weight Watchers stock. According to reports, that resulted in Winfrey owning roughly 10% of the company at that time.
Sadly for Winfrey, not even a year after she bought a large stake in Weight Watchers, the company's value tanked. In September 2016, USA Today reported that the value of Winfrey's stock had dropped so much that she lost $117 million.
At that time, Weight Watchers had announced that the company was replacing its CEO. Upon hearing that news, the value of each share dropped 66% from the height of the stock's price. That meant the overall value of Weight Watchers as a company had dropped $1.2 billion.
Does Oprah Winfrey Still Own Part Of Weight Watchers?
If most people lost $117 million in a matter of weeks, that is the kind of thing they would never recover from. However, Winfrey definitely isn't the average person. As of the time of this writing, Celebrity Net Worth reports that Winfrey has a $3.5 billion fortune.
Since Winfrey is so incredibly wealthy, she can take a loss of $117 million from her bottom line. That said, just because losing that kind of money is something that Winfrey can afford, doesn't mean that is something she is going to accept.
The reason that Winfrey has become so rich is she is extremely shrewd, to say the very least. With that in mind, when Weight Watchers' stock price stock dropped in value so significantly, many observers were interested to see Winfrey would react.
On the one hand, Winfrey could sell her entire stake to stop the bleeding. Alternatively, Winfrey could ride out the dip and hold on to every share of Weight Watchers stock she once purchased or even buy more.
Ultimately, it turns out that Winfrey opted for a combination of those two plans as she held on to the stock for a year and a half before selling some of her stake. After Weight Watchers' value took the aforementioned hit in September 2016, Winfrey waited to sell some of her stock until March 2018.
According to reports, Winfrey parted with roughly 25% of her investment in Weight Watchers which undeniably is a big deal. At the time of the sale, Winfrey put out a statement reiterating her commitment to the company.
"I am deeply committed to Weight Watchers and continue to see a bright future for the company. I believe in Weight Watchers and I’m inspired every day by the millions of people around the world who are leading healthier and more fulfilling lives."
When the media reported that Winfrey lost $117 million because of Weight Watchers, that was true strictly speaking. After all, the value of the stock that Winfrey owned was worth $117 million more in the weeks before it took a dip in 2016.
That said, if anyone thinks that Winfrey's decision to buy stock in Weight Watchers was a mistake, they are very, very wrong. In reality, Winfrey's investment in Weight Watchers made her a truly staggering amount of money overall.
When Winfrey initially invested in Weight Watchers, she bought 6.4 million shares at $6.79 a share which cost her $43.2 million. When Winfrey sold 25 percent of her original investment in Weight Watchers, she got between $58.29 to $63.94 a share.
The reason that the value of Weight Watchers' stock exploded like that is simple, Winfrey. From all accounts, investors gained a lot of faith in the company once Winfrey became part owner.
The money Winfrey got from selling Weight Watchers stock in 2018 alone greatly outweighed the price she paid for her entire initial investement. A couple of years later in June 2020, Winfrey sold more Weight Watchers stock.
By that point, Winfrey had gifted part of her investment in Weight Watchers to her charitable foundation. In 2020, Winfrey and her foundation got more than $16 million from the Weight Watchers stock the two entities sold.
Despite selling stock in the company more than once, Winfrey still has a significant stake in the company once known as Weight Watchers as of the time of this writing. On top of that, Winfrey has served as a member of WW International's Board of Directors for many years now.
Looking back at Winfrey's history with WW International, her relationship with the company has had some ups and downs. That said, the important thing to note is that working with WW International allowed Winfrey to make millions for herself and others who invested at the right time.
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