Planet Fitness Can Manage Potential Risks to Churn, Membership Growth From Meta AI Agent, UBS Says

02:22 PM EDT, 10/09/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Planet Fitness (PLNT) investors are concerned regarding potential implications on churn and membership growth from Meta Platforms' (META) new artificial intelligence agent, though the risk is "manageable in practice," UBS Securities said Friday. Last month, Meta said its Muse personal AI agent can perform tasks such as sending e-mails, booking travel and negotiating bills on behalf of users. The agent can also continue working after users close the app. "(Planet Fitness) sentiment has been negative and took a worse turn after Muse launch and fears that agentic AI can drive significant impact on churn in the medium-term," UBS analysts, including Arpine Kocharyan, said in a note to clients Friday. "We believe agentic AI risk is sensible but manageable in practice." The fitness center operator could introduce authentication steps, such as in-app verifications and biometric confirmations, which AI agents would struggle to complete, according to the brokerage. Planet Fitness could also restrict automated access, block bot traffic at the network level, and require direct confirmation from members before allowing an AI agent to cancel their subscriptions, UBS said. The high cost of rejoining gyms could keep members to not allow automatic cancellations, while Planet Fitness can use the AI technology itself to personalize outreach and offer membership freezes or downgrades before a cancellation, according to the note. Planet Fitness' business fundamentals have improved amid stronger membership growth in September and continued strength in early October, UBS said. "Churn has been stable in the 3.5%-3.8% range, with (Planet Fitness) likely implementing a change in billing whereby a member is billed same day (versus) 30 days later," the analysts said. "If implemented, this could further reduce churn." More stable churn means Black Card pricing hike could come "sooner than the market believes," the analysts wrote. Black Card membership typically has higher utilization, according to the note. For the third quarter, UBS expects Planet Fitness to report same-store sales growth of 0.5%, compared with Wall Street's views for a 0.4% gain. The company could see a "slight" upside to 1% comparable sales growth for the year, according to the brokerage. Last month, Deutsche Bank said Planet Fitness' growth and market share in the high volume, low price fitness space could take a hit in the coming years amid a projected rise in competition from new entrants and smaller, well-established companies. Also in September, connected fitness company Peloton (PTON) forecast fiscal 2027 revenue below Wall Street's estimates following last year's subscription price hike. Price: 47.73, Change: +3.70, Percent Change: +8.40