New Activity for Class: Statement of Cash Flows: Peloton Interactive vs. Planet Fitness

Want another ready-to-use activity that brings the statement of cash flows to life with real companies? This classroom activity uses Peloton Interactive and Planet Fitness to show students two very different cash flow stories: a steady, profitable fitness franchisor and a consumer brand working its way through a turnaround. It includes condensed one-page statements of cash flows for both companies, 12 polling questions to help students analyze the two statements of cash flows, and a complete PowerPoint slide deck that includes the polling questions, ready for you to copy and paste into your own slide deck.

Peloton Interactive and Planet Fitness operate in the same broad fitness industry, but their 2025 statements of cash flows tell very different stories. Peloton reported a net loss of $118.9 million in fiscal year 2025 and generated $333.0 million in positive operating cash flows, its first year of positive operating cash flows after two consecutive years of large negative operating cash flows. Planet Fitness, by contrast, reported net income of $220.3 million and generated $418.4 million in positive operating cash flows in 2025, continuing a three-year pattern of consistent profitability and growing cash generation.

This pairing works well for introducing students to the concept of cash flow consistency and quality. Both companies generated positive operating cash flows in 2025, but the stories behind those numbers are very different.

One important note for instructors: Peloton’s fiscal year ends June 30, while Planet Fitness uses a December 31 calendar year. In addition, Peloton reports in millions while Planet Fitness reports in thousands. Both of these differences are flagged prominently in the slide deck.

I developed a classroom activity using condensed statements of cash flows from both companies’ 2025 annual reports. Students work in pairs to answer 12 polling questions that guide them from basic identification of cash flow figures through interpretation of trends and patterns, before asking them to evaluate the overall financial strength of each company.

The activity includes:

• A PowerPoint slide deck with both statements of cash flows and all 12 questions, formatted for use with a classroom polling tool (download at this link) or simply by asking students to raise their hands to vote on the answer
• A condensed, one-page statement of cash flows for Peloton in Word format
• A condensed, one-page statement of cash flows for Planet Fitness in Word format
• Answers to the polling questions in the slide deck (request the answers to the polling questions at this link; check your spam folder a week after requesting, I send out requests about once a week)

Discussion Questions

1. Peloton reported negative operating cash flows of $387.6 million in 2023 and $66.1 million in 2024 before generating positive operating cash flows of $333.0 million in 2025. What concerns, if any, would you have about relying on this 2025 figure as a measure of Peloton’s financial recovery?
2. Planet Fitness generated positive operating cash flows of $330.3 million, $343.9 million, and $418.4 million over the three years shown. What does this pattern suggest about the sustainability of its cash generation?
3. Peloton’s capital expenditures dropped from $82.4 million in 2023 to $9.3 million in 2025. What might explain this decline, and what does it suggest about Peloton’s investment strategy?
4. Based solely on the statements of cash flows, which company appears to be in a stronger financial position, and what specific evidence supports your conclusion?

Copyright 2026 Wendy M Tietz, LLC