Shares of companies that have benefited from the pandemic — including Zoom, Peloton, Netflix and Amazon — tanked after Pfizer revealed that it is getting closer to a coronavirus vaccine that could let people get back to the office.
The popular video-conferencing software provider Zoom plummeted more than 17 percent following the Monday announcement, as the realization set in that its pandemic-fueled joyride may be coming to an end.
“What’s unique with Zoom is there’s such a direct correlation between going to the office and a significant decline in usage,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said. “The vaccine could cut this unsustainable growth by 50, 60 or 70 percent.”
Netflix, which has benefited from a largely captive, bored audience of viewers stuck in their homes since the spring, dipped 8.6 percent Monday as a result of the announcement. Amazon, which has seen orders skyrocket as shoppers have been kept from visiting brick-and-mortar stores by the pandemic, slid 5 percent.
Popular exercise bike maker Peloton — which has been riding the gravy train for months with gyms shut down across the country — tumbled a whopping 20 percent on the news, while workplace software company Slack slipped 4.6 percent.
Camilla Yanushevsky, an analyst covering Peloton for CFRA Research, said she viewed Peloton’s stock drop as a kneejerk reaction to the news, saying that she anticipates a rebound before too long as markets factor in that the vaccine likely won’t be widely available until late next year.
“Peloton has a lot of product innovation ahead beyond the bike and treadmill,” she said, noting that the New York-based company has said it will be adding new product vertices. “They’re going to be able to keep consumers engaged.”
Indeed, Peloton saw a similar stock drop in late September when Apple announced its own fitness subscription service but recovered within three days.
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