Oprah loses $27M of her Weight Watchers gains

Oprah is the biggest loser.

Weight Watchers International’s heaviest backer lost $27.5 million overnight after shareholders got their first look at the company’s performance since she took a 10 percent stake in October.

The bottom line: Oprah hasn’t been able to fatten the company’s subscriber rolls despite touting her high-profile weight loss on the diet program.

Active subscriber numbers fell 4.8 percent to 2.39 million in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 2, the company said in a statement after the close of trading on Thursday.

Investors showed as much commitment to the stock as a New Year’s resolution to shed pounds. The shares, which closed at $15.55 Thursday, opened down 28 percent at $11.25 on Friday morning.

Oprah is still ahead on Weight Watchers. Her original investment of $43.2 million is worth more than $72 million, based on Friday’s opening price.

The stock gained more than 20 percent on Oct. 29, when the company disclosed that Oprah had bought 6.4 million shares at $6.79 apiece and joined its board.

But the stock has been yo-yoing ever since then. Weight Watchers slumped after the initial euphoria over her investment wore off and investors realized that its business is still shrinking, fast. Ditto when she tweeted in late January that she had lost 26 pounds.

The gain-loss stock cycle carried over into this month when the company trumpeted a medical study showing it was effective in helping prediabetics shed pounds. Investors were less than enthusiastic when The Post highlighted that the study was funded by the company.