Moody’s revises GNC outlook to stable

Moody's Investors Service said it revised General Nutrition Centers, Inc.'s (GNC) rating outlook to stable from positive and affirmed the company's ratings, including its Ba3 corporate family rating, Ba3-PD probability of default rating and the Ba2 ratings on its secured credit facilities.

GNC's SGL-1 speculative grade liquidity rating is unchanged.

"The outlook change to stable reflects GNC's announcement that it expects to repurchase an additional $200 million in shares in the open market before the end of 2015 and that as a result of this activity, it will exceed its previously announced targeted net leverage range of 3.2 to 3.4 times," Moody's assistant vice president and analyst Michael Zuccaro said in a news release.

"Operating performance, while showing sequential improvement, has also been slightly below our expectations. Therefore we now expect that debt/EBITDA, per our calculation, will modestly increase over the current level of 3.6 times."

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