What happened
Teladoc Health (TDOC -4.64%), to many investors the top stock in the mushrooming telehealth segment, looked a bit sickly on Tuesday. As of late afternoon, the shares were down by more than 5%, in contrast to the slight rise of the S&P 500 index. The latest in a series of analyst price target cuts was the primary reason for the slide.
So what
Following similar adjustments from several of his peers in the stock forecasting realm, Canaccord Genuity analyst Richard Close has chopped his price target for Teladoc. He now believes the shares are worth $160 apiece, down some distance from his previous level of $188.
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Nevertheless, Close is sticking with his buy rating on the healthcare stock. After all, even that notably reduced price target is almost 55% above the current level of the shares.
Close's downward adjustment follows similar moves in recent days from prognosticators at such notable companies as Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Credit Suisse. In one instance, the stock's recommendation was downgraded from buy to neutral (by BTIG's David Larsen).
All come in the wake of Teladoc's investor day, in which the company provided guidance that was actually quite encouraging -- except for its 2021 revenue forecast, which came in under analyst projections.
Now what
Enthusiasm for Teladoc, which enjoyed soaring popularity earlier in the coronavirus pandemic, has cooled down significantly since the stock's peak earlier this year.
But the market's reaction to the investor day presentation and the subsequent price/recommendation cuts is a bit puzzling. Teladoc still has enormous potential, with anticipated top-line growth of at least 55% between 2022 and 2024, and it remains a high-profile bellwether stock in the telehealth segment. It's revealing that in that series of price target cuts, nearly all analysts maintained their buy recommendations on Teladoc.
