Petco Stock Surges On Leadership Hires: Retail Stays Bullish

Petco named Sabrina Simmons, former CFO at Gap as its finance chief.

Shares of Petco Health and Wellness Co. (WOOF) jumped more than 6% on Tuesday after the company announced major changes to its leadership team aimed at operational improvements and helping it return to profitable growth, with retail sentiment staying bullish.

Petco named Sabrina Simmons, former CFO at Gap as its finance chief, effective Feb. 17.

The company also named Michael Romanko, formerly chief merchandising and marketing officer at Five Below Inc., as chief customer and product officer. A former 7-Eleven EVP and chief merchandising officer, Jack Stout, has been named chief merchandising officer at Petco.

"Today's appointments represent a significant evolution of Petco's leadership team that brings robust retail expertise to help accelerate initiatives we're undertaking to strengthen our retail fundamentals, drive profit improvement and return us to growth," said Joel Anderson, Petco’s CEO. "Sabrina, Michael and Jack are seasoned leaders with proven track records, who will further help us unlock value for our customers, partners and shareholders."

The three new executives will report directly to Anderson. The hires are aimed at driving the “continued execution” of the company's 2025 objectives and return to profitable growth, the company said.

Sentiment on Stocktwits stayed ‘bullish’ compared to a week ago. Message volume was in the ‘high’ zone.

In November, Petco named Joe Venezia its Chief Revenue Officer.

Petco stock is down 17.8% year-to-date.

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