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What happened
Shares of on-demand healthcare provider Teladoc (TDOC -2.91%) rose as much as 13.9% Thursday in the first two hours of trading after the company announced that it would price up to 9,487,500 shares of common stock, including underwriter options for additional equity, at $16.75 per share. If fully subscribed, the offering will bring in $159 million in gross proceeds.
So what
That's a lot of dough, and investors don't have to try hard to imagine what it will be used for: growth. Teladoc is a fast-growing telehealth pioneer, with plenty of market left to create and market share left to snag. The company expects to report $123 million in revenue in 2016 after generating just $77 million in revenue the year before. Management has guided for up to $185 million in revenue in 2017, along with a 26% uptick in membership and 50% growth in visits.
That growth makes Teladoc's $850 million market cap look relatively cheap, assuming it can turn that revenue into profits over time. That is still a distant goal, however, as it reported an operating loss of over $56 million in the first nine months of 2016. Then again, investors aren't complaining with the growth being delivered and aren't expecting profits at this time.
Now what
The company ended September 2016 with about $75 million in cash on hand, so even after subtracting out the last quarter's burn rate, adding another $159 million (before closing fees) is pretty significant. Investors expecting an exciting year of business development will have a lot more excitement to look forward to now.
