Weight Watchers shares jump after Oprah announces she’s lost 26 pounds

Weight Watchers International Inc. shares rose as much as 22 per cent after investor and spokeswoman Oprah said she’s lost excess fat using the program.

“I lost 26 pounds, and that i have eaten bread each day,” the entertainment mogul said inside a video posted to Twitter.

This is the joy for me. I do not deny myself bread. I’ve bread every day

The shares climbed up to US$13.54 after the video was launched, continuing a trend of Weight Watchers’ stock rising when Winfrey’s weight goes down. It also climbed in October after she said around the Ellen DeGeneres reveal that she’d lost 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms).

Eat bread. Lose weight. Whaaatttt? #ComeJoinMe https://t.co/jUgpk9ToXY https://t.co/xtnB53EwSf

— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) January 26, 2016

Investors are betting that Winfrey can help turn around the organization, that has struggled to contend with fitness apps and other programs recently. Winfrey, 61, announced her partnership with Weight Watchers in October, saying she’d buy 10 % from the stock and join the board. In late October, she reported the stake was almost 15 percent, including options.

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Short investors, who bet that stocks will go down, also provide targeted Weight Watchers. The business’s short interest out of shares outstanding is 16 percent. That puts it within the top ten percent on most shorted Russell 2000 companies, according to data published by Markit Ltd. and Bloomberg. The short interest reached up to 20 % on Jan. 19, the most since March 2015, the data show.

Weight Watchers can also be probably the most expensive stocks to short. The price to borrow shares is rated a 9 by Markit, with 10 being the highest. The typical for that Russell 2000 is 1.6.

Oprah began appearing in ads endorsing Weight Watchers in December. The most recent clip, which she posted using the tweet “Eat bread. Lose weight. Whaaatttt?” centered on her love of bread.

“This is the joy for me personally,” Winfrey said. “I don’t deny myself bread. I have bread every single day.”