By Sneha S K and Amina Niasse
NEW YORK, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Hims & Hers Health posted a wider-than-expected second-quarter loss on Monday as the telehealth company’s shift to branded weight-loss drugs drove up costs, sending its shares down 6% in extended trading.
The company’s growing GLP-1 weight-loss business and international expansion have boosted subscriptions and increased monthly revenue per subscriber by 21% from a year earlier, although executives and investors say the expansion has weighed on gross profit margins.
Hims reported a second-quarter net loss of 37 cents per share, compared with analysts’ estimate of a 1-cent loss per share, according to LSEG-compiled data.
The company said the transition to branded GLP-1 weight-loss drugs resulted in restructuring costs of $4.6 million during the second quarter and that it expects to return to profitability in 2027.
Hims raised its full-year revenue outlook to $3.1 billion to $3.3 billion from its previous forecast of $2.8 billion-$3 billion, including a contribution from Eucalyptus, an Australian digital health company it agreed to acquire in February.
Revenue from Eucalyptus is not included by most analysts. Chief Financial Officer Yemi Okupe told Reuters that the company’s performance, when excluding Eucalyptus, exceeded its initial outlook.
“Even if you pull out Eucalyptus (from the guidance), the domestic business and the existing international business were already ahead of our guidance range,” Okupe said.
The company said it expects gross margins to remain below historical levels, as it accelerates its weight-loss and international offerings.
“Do we have the ability to set the foundation for strong cash flows in the future?” Okupe told Reuters. “Resoundingly, the answer is ‘yes’.”
Paul Cerro, chief investment officer at Cedar Grove Capital Management, which owns Hims shares, said many international markets are less profitable than the United States, but could still drive higher revenue over time.
“It’s not that it’s a bad business. It’s just not as lucrative,” said Cerro.
Hims said it was confident about reaching its goal of $6.5 billion in revenue by 2030. Raul Shah, chief investment officer at DocShah Financial, said Hims will likely return to historical profit margins in five years.
The company’s subscriber base increased to nearly 2.9 million in the second quarter, up 19% from a year earlier, while monthly online revenue per average subscriber climbed 21% to $92.
Hims sells treatments including weight-loss drugs and hormone therapies, and has been investing in diagnostics and lab infrastructure to support its personalized care push. It also acquired a California-based peptide facility earlier this year.
Hims has been shifting its strategy toward personalized treatments due to tight regulatory scrutiny. The company said it is testing ingredients used to compound peptide treatments, and Okupe asserted the firm is confident it can offer the products at scale if U.S. regulations permit.
An FDA advisory panel in July backed reversing Biden-era restrictions on the manufacturing of six peptides, despite warnings from FDA staff that evidence of their safety and effectiveness is lacking.
(Reporting by Amina Niasse in New York and Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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