Wall Street investors pour money into gyms as they reopen

Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss customers returning to their local gyms as they reopen.

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: So John mentioned there getting back in the gym, that people are coming back to the gym, an interesting read on that in "The Wall Street Journal" today. And the numbers show it. The gym stocks are beginning to pop. People are tired of working out at home, and they are starting to return to places like Orangetheory or Planet Fitness or some of the other popular gyms around the country.

I suppose I am in the minority here. I haven't worked out in a gym in 20 some years and have no plan to. Once I started working out at home, I realized you're wasting too much time going there and back. But maybe I'm alone in that. Emily, are you back to the gym?

EMILY MCCORMICK: Dave, I actually am back to the gym. I pretty much waited it out after the Omicron variant, the wave that we saw here in New York City. But I have a Crunch right down the street from me. That's where I've been going now for just over the past month now. And I do have to say, it is nice being back in that gym environment. I certainly don't have a whole lot of gym equipment besides a couple of little dumbbells here in my NYC apartment. So it is nice to have that sort of range.

There certainly-- I can say, there certainly are people there in the mornings, in the evenings. Definitely seeing a revival, at least at the location that I'm seeing here. But I do think if we think about the stocks and the stock prices, Peloton, of course, has been under pressure. Certainly, a lot of investors betting on this return to gyms. A number of the private equity firms also starting to invest and give capital infusions to many of these operators with the hopes that they will see a revitalization at large. But Rachelle, I'm wondering, are you back in the gym, or are you still working out at home?

RACHELLE AKUFFO: So I'm one of these people-- I'm always in this constant pursuit of the right fitness thing that works for me. When we first started working from home, you know, I got the Peloton. I was like, you don't even enjoy this. Why did you buy this? And so I was like, OK, what actually works for me? And I was always at my fittest when I had a personal trainer.

So I actually ended up going with Orangetheory because it's that perfect blend of sort of having that accountability and having a trainer without having to own a bunch of bulky equipment. And it really is the accountability that helps for me. So for me, I do really need that in-person experience.

DAVE BRIGGS: I guess I just love being at home. I guess I'm the unsocial one. The question is, what does all this mean for Peloton? That stock has been hammered. Emily, where do you think they go from here?

EMILY MCCORMICK: I mean, I think that is the million dollar question for a lot of these Peloton investors. You take a look at where the stock has gone for the year to date, down about 19%. And of course, we've been reporting on the fact that Peloton has been thinking about rolling out different types of subscription and payment plans here so that users in certain markets can actually do a monthly payment for the Peloton Bike itself, as opposed to having to do the Peloton Bike for a couple thousand dollars, then also doing that monthly subscription.

So I think it's going to be interesting to see where this company heads, if we are going to really see people going back to the gym en masse, what that's going to mean for this company.