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Shares of Weight Watchers International (WTW) are trading down more than 13% just after the open on Friday morning because the company’s outlook for the year ahead disappointed Wall Street. The weight-management program known for point counting has endured a relatively difficult year and blames much of the difficult on a weak economy. Management expects 2010 to be challenging as well and has placed EPS guidance at $2.25 to $2.50, substantially below the consensus earnings expectation of $2.78 per share. Weight Watchers spoke to the need “to invest in initiatives to modernize their offering,” which may be related to a report out of Adweek that claims WTW’s $70 million advertising budget is reviewing its options.

Financial performance in the year just ended was actually fairly strong, as fiscal 2009 earnings came in at $2.68 per share and beat analysts’ expectations in each of the four quarters. Sales did slump about 9% in the year to $1.4 billion, but management was able to limit the impact on the bottom line to just 3.3% compared to fiscal 2008 through savvy cost cutting. (Click here for earnings call transcript when available.)