No need for waiting nor watching here.
Oprah Winfrey has already made serious cash on the 10% stake she took in the dieting company Weight Watchers (WTW) on Monday.
For a total of $43 million, Winfrey purchased 6.4 million shares with the option to buy 3.5 million more (an additional 5% stake). Her bet has already paid off, and then some.
Weight Watchers’ stock spiked to more than $13 per share from just under $6.8 -per share at market close on Friday. Tuesday, the company’s stock price soared to more than $18 per share, more than doubling her return on investment.
Crunching the numbers, as USA Today did, one finds that Winfrey has already made more than $70 million on the deal. Including the stock options, she’s made about $110 million on paper.
The 52-year-old company has struggled in recent years to reclaim its market might. In Feb. 2012, its stock peaked around $80 per share. Executives at the company must no doubt be viewing the billionaire media mogul’s “Oprah effect” as a godsend.