Planet Fitness shares were downgraded by both Morgan Stanley and Bank of America following first-quarter results that exposed weakening membership momentum, a halted price increase for its Black Card tier and a shake-up in marketing strategy.
Morgan Stanley reduced its rating on the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight and cut its price target to $47 from $117. Bank of America downgraded Planet Fitness to Neutral from Buy and lowered its price target to $59 from $110.
Analysts pointed to a mix of competitive pressure, marketing misdirection and the decision to scrap the planned Black Card price increase as central drivers of the reassessments. Morgan Stanley analyst Stephen Grambling wrote that “key tenets of our investment case have been disproven,” and he highlighted a “lack of pricing visibility and headwinds to accelerating club growth.” Grambling also warned that “the pace and magnitude of recent guidance reductions may leave an overhang of investor skepticism on the reliability of forward expectations.”
Bank of America analyst Andrew Didora noted that the first quarter, which is the most important period for new-member sign-ups, fell short of internal expectations. Planet Fitness added 700,000 net new members in the period, and management acknowledged that its recent marketing, in aggregate, had “skewed toward more fitness-focused customers over beginners.”
The company has hired a new creative agency as part of its marketing overhaul, but Didora said a replacement campaign is not expected to reach the market until later this year at the earliest.
In response to the quarter, Planet Fitness trimmed its full-year 2026 outlook across multiple metrics. Same-club sales growth guidance was reduced to 1% from a prior range of 4%-5%. Revenue growth guidance was lowered to 7% from 9%, and earnings-per-share growth guidance was cut to 4% from 9%-10%.
These revisions and analyst reactions reflect heightened uncertainty over Planet Fitness’s ability to accelerate club-level growth while also delivering on pricing and marketing initiatives. Investors and market participants will be watching the timing and effectiveness of the new creative work and any future decisions on pricing as potential catalysts for re-evaluating the company’s outlook.