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If You Invested $1000 in Medifast a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

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How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

Another factor that can influence investors is FOMO, or the fear of missing out, especially with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Medifast (MED - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to MED for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Medifast's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Medifast's main business drivers.

With more than 40 years of experience in the health and wellness space, Medifast, Inc. (MED - Free Report) has become a remarkable direct-selling company in the industry. The company is also known for its leading health and wellness community—OPTAVIA — which provides Lifelong Transformation, One Healthy Habit at a Time lifestyle solutions. Given consumers’ rising inclination toward health, the OPTAVIA lifestyle solution and coaching support system bode well. Notably, OPTAVIA-branded products contributed 87.2% of the total consumable units sold in fourth-quarter 2020.

Incorporated in 1989, Medifast is a leading manufacturer and distributor of clinically-proven healthy living products and programs. The company produces, distributes and sells weight loss, weight management and healthy living products throughits direct online channels as well as franchise weight control centers.

The Baltimore, MD— based company boasts of a diversified portfolio of more than 170 consumable product options, which include bars, bites, pretzels, puffs, cereal crunch, drinks, hearty choices, oatmeal, pancakes, pudding, soft serve, shakes, smoothies, soft bakes and soups.

Medifast’s manufacturing plant, which is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, is situated in Owings Mills, MD. The company sells different types of products, which are formed on the basis of its proprietary formulas across the United States and the Asia-Pacific.The products are sold under brands such as the Medifast, OPTAVIA, Thrive by Medifast, Optimal Health by Take Shape for Life and Flavors of Home.

OPTAVIA product line is sold through its community of independent coaches who offer support and guidance to their clients. In partnership with OPTAVIA coaches, franchise partners, resellers and its Scientific Advisory Board, Medifast offers comprehensive wellness products and programs that focus on creating sustainable change by helping people learn to incorporate healthy habits into their lives.

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Medifast a decade ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in May 2011 would be worth $12,054.58, or a gain of 1,105.46%, as of May 4, 2021, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

The S&P 500 rose 209.05% and the price of gold increased 13.59% over the same time frame in comparison.

Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for MED.

Medifast has outperformed the industry inthe past six months. The company has been gaining on strength in its OPTAVIA lifestyle solution and coaching support system, which is set to benefit from consumers’ rising inclination toward health. This was evident in fourth-quarter 2020, wherein earnings and sales grew year over year and the latter beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Results were backed by a rise in total active earning OPTAVIA coaches and average revenue per active earning OPTAVIA coach. Certainly, Medifast’s focus on developing tools and programs to increase efficiency of coaches has been working well. Also, the company’s supply-chain investments are noteworthy, though they are likely to hurt the operating margin in 2021. Moreover, Medifast has been seeing high SG&A costs due to increased OPTAVIA commission costs.

Over the past four weeks, shares have rallied 6.65%, and there have been 1 higher earnings estimate revisions in the past two months for fiscal 2021 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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