(Updated - October 19, 2015 10:29 AM EDT)

Craig-Hallum maintained a Buy rating on Weight Watchers (NYSE: WTW) and doubled its price target from $10 to $20. Earlier Weight Watchers announced Oprah Winfrey will be joining the company’s board, entering a strategic marketing partnership, and investing $43 million in new shares for a 10% equity stake in the company. In the view of analyst Alex J. Fuhrman, the deal addresses stagnant sales and Weight Watchers' debt-heavy capital structure.

"We are raising our target from $10 to $20 in view of decreased liquidity concerns and the potential for significant marketing benefits stemming from the collaboration with Oprah Winfrey," said Fuhrman.

"We believe this announcement immediately addresses two investor concerns: (1) a looming $144M debt maturity (Apr-16), and (2) declining sales," continued the analyst.

Fuhrman added, "The marketing alliance will take effect immediately and could have positive results in the very near term (Oprah already on WTW’s website). WTW is making a tweak to its diet program this coming diet season (revenues were up 20% the last time this happened 7 years ago). We are still modeling 2016 revs down 10% for WTW. Given the new marketing partnership and upcoming program change, revenue growth could conceivable be positive in 2016, which would cause our $190M EBITDA estimate to rise by $30-40M or more."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Weight Watchers click here. For more ratings news on Weight Watchers click here.

Shares of Weight Watchers closed at $6.79 yesterday.

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