Hims & Hers Earnings Preview: The Novo Nordisk Shift Puts GLP-1 Strategy in Focus

Key Points

• Following a settled legal dispute with Novo Nordisk, HIMS has transitioned from selling compounded weight-loss drugs to offering brand-name Wegovy and Ozempic.
• While the deal was finalized in March, investors are eager to see if this pivot will boost the top line or if the financial impact likely won’t be seen until Q2.
• Despite its recent rally, the stock remains highly volatile with short interest exceeding 35%. 

Healthcare stocks have struggled in 2026. With a year-to-date (YTD) loss of about 6%, that corner of the market has been the worst performer among all 11 sectors of the S&P 500 in 2026.

While that has been reflected in the YTD losses of some of Big Pharma’s biggest names, it has also adversely affected mid-cap stocks like telehealth platform Hims & Hers Health NYSE: HIMS, which has fallen by more than 23% in 2026.

One day after a big announcement from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) caused shares of HIMS to jump by nearly 4%, the stock gave it all back on Thursday, falling by nearly 5% as traders locked in profits.

But that wasn’t enough to derail the stock’s recent rally, which has seen HIMS gain nearly 32% over the past month and around 77% since its 52-week low on Feb. 27. As the company prepares to report Q1 2026 earnings on May 11, here’s what investors should watch for.

Is the Novo Nordisk Partnership Already Paying Off?

Following a well-publicized legal dispute earlier this year with Denmark-based Novo Nordisk NYSE: NVO—the eighth largest publicly traded pharmaceutical company in the world with a market cap of more than $204 billion—it’s been smooth sailing for Hims & Hers.

Since Novo Nordisk dropped its patent infringement lawsuit on March 9, HIMS has been on a tear. Not only did the Danish firm abandon its case, but it also reached a deal that allows Hims & Hers to sell Novo Nordisk’s brand-name Wegovy and Ozempic through its direct-to-consumer and virtual medical services platform.

As part of that deal, Hims & Hers agreed to stop advertising its compounded GLP-1 products, which given the FDA’s announcement that it is proposing that semaglutide, tirzepatide, and liraglutide be excluded from its 503B bulks list, could prove prescient for the company.

Wall Street will be looking for how that deal has impacted Hims & Hers’ top line. Despite the strategic shift being announced on March 9, Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 products were not available for sale through the online platform until March 26. The books for Q1 closed on March 31, so those gross sales may not materialize on Hims & Hers’ income statement until Q2.

Will Hims & Hers Continue to Show Subscriber Growth?

The market will also be looking for confirmation that Hims & Hers’ total subscribers are holding above 2.5 million, if not steadily growing from there. That benchmark was reached near the end of 2025 and marked a more than 16% increase from the 2.2 million subscribers the company had at the end of 2024.

That growth is proving to be sustainable, after Hims & Hers ended 2023 with 1.5 million. But more important than the raw subscriber count is how the telehealth company generates 90% of its recurring revenue from its customer base.

Approximately 82% of its users remain on the platform for more than three months, and if Hims & Hers can demonstrate that it is sustainable, it should bolster full-year guidance.

Meanwhile, analysts are expecting earnings per share (EPS) of around three to four cents, which would mark an estimated 90% year-over-year decline. That may already be priced in, given the stock’s YTD performance, but a miss could accelerate selling.

The same goes for quarterly revenue, which consensus forecasts put in the range of $616 million to $619 million. Wall Street is already bracing for a “reset quarter” after revenue growth tapered from nearly 111% in Q1 2025 to less than 29% in Q4, so any surprise to the upside could spur another leg to the current rally.

Analysts Are Taking a Wait-and-See Approach

Despite an average 12-month price target of nearly $32, which implies potential upside of around 24%, Wall Street remains tepid on the stock.

Of the 17 analysts currently covering HIMS, four assign it a Buy rating, 12 assign it a Hold rating, and just one assigns it a Sell rating. Overall, the stock receives a consensus Hold rating.

Institutional ownership of nearly 64% falls within the typical range for mid-cap companies. Outflows of $1.62 billion have nearly caught up to inflows of $1.8 billion over the past 12 months after selling accelerated in Q4 2025. But that trend reversed in Q1, with institutional selling 88% lower than institutional buying.

With a high beta of 2.43, the inherently volatile stock is currently being heavily targeted by bears. Concerningly, more than 35% of the float—or nearly 70 million shares of the almost 228 million shares outstanding—is currently shorted.

Still, strong earnings could shift sentiment and propel the stock closer to the consensus analyst price target. Shareholders and prospective investors should mark their calendars for Monday, May 11, when Hims & Hers Health reports Q1 2026 results.