What happened
Teladoc Health (TDOC -2.40%) was a sprightly stock on Wednesday. The current top dog in the telehealth segment inched 1.6% higher -- certainly not among the company's biggest pops, but good enough to outpace the S&P 500 index on the day. Two developments seemed to be responsible for the rise.
So what
The first, and likely the most impactful, was Teladoc's announcement that it was launching a new service. On Wednesday morning, the company said that its Primary360 is now available to entities in the healthcare ecosystem, including commercial health insurance plans and the companies that utilize them.
Image source: Getty Images.
As the name implies, the new offering is a primary care service, and it is meant to fill a gaping hole in the healthcare landscape. Teladoc said that its experience during the pilot phase of the service showed that two-thirds of its members did not make use of primary care, which is considered essential as a means for people to monitor their health and tackle any issues as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, one of Wall Street's current star investors, Cathie Wood, opened up her checkbook to buy another batch of Teladoc stock. On Wednesday, it was revealed that on Tuesday, her ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK 1.05%) purchased 154,175 shares. That added to its existing position to give the fund a total of more than 9.1 million Teladoc shares.
In terms of total market value ($1.3 billion) and weight in the portfolio (nearly 5.8%), Teladoc is the No. 2 holding in the ARK Innovation ETF behind electric vehicle king Tesla.
Now what
Teladoc didn't provide any estimates as to how Primary360 might impact its financial results, although we can imagine customer take-up will be robust for such an important service. Meanwhile, I should caution, as usual, that no investor should pull the trigger on a stock simply because a high-profile financier has done so, although the latest ARK Innovation ETF move is certainly encouraging.
