Teladoc Health (TDOC +0.47%), these days considered a "coronavirus stock" because of its increased prominence during this pandemic, released its Q1 of fiscal 2020 results on Wednesday after the market closed.
For the quarter, the company's revenue came in at just under $180.8 million, a sturdy 41% higher on a year-over-year basis. That was on a dramatic rise in total visits, which nearly doubled to nearly 2.05 million in total, and a 61% increase in U.S. paid membership to 43 million. Net loss narrowed, although not by much, to $29.6 million ($0.40 per share) from the year-ago result of $30.2 ($0.43).
Image source: Teladoc Health.
According to Zacks, the prognosticators following the stock were collectively expecting a per-share deficit of $0.35. They were modeling revenue of $180.7 million.
Teladoc proffered guidance for its current Q2, but cautioned that "[g]iven the uncertainty of the expected path of the COVID-19 outbreak as well as the broader economic impact, our updated guidance is based on what we know today."
With that caveat, the company is forecasting that it will earn $215 million to $225 million in revenue from the quarter, and post a per-share loss of $0.23 to $0.28. It expects total visits of 2.3 million to 2.4 million, and its U.S. paid membership rolls to reach 49 million to 50 million.
Teladoc has been thrust into the limelight because it specializes in video conferencing for the healthcare industry. Patients and medical professionals can interact remotely using the company's services; since the world is under siege from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, this has obvious benefits and advantages in an environment where people need to maintain distance from each other.
On Wednesday, in contrast to the gains of the wider stock market, Teladoc shares fell by just over 3.3%.
