What happened
Healthcare administration services specialist Evolent Health (EVH -2.89%) was a bit of an ill stock on Wednesday. The company's shares lost more than 6% of their value, on the second of two analyst price target cuts so far this week. That decline was much steeper than the S&P 500 index's 0.8% slide on the day.
So what
Wednesday's price target cutter was Truist Securities' Jailendra Singh, who chopped $1 off his previous Evolent level to $32 per share. In doing so, Singh left his hold recommendation on the shares intact. The move comes after Singh on Monday held a "fireside chat," essentially an interview with Evolent's CEO Seth Blackley and its CFO John Johnson that was available to the public.
Singh's reduction marks the second thus far this week.
Analyst Anne Samuel of JPMorgan Chase also trimmed her estimation to that same $32 per share. The kicker is, she knocked her target down much more drastically -- she was previously estimating that Evolent was worth $52. Nevertheless, like Singh she maintained her recommendation (overweight, or buy, in this case).
Now what
Although there are certainly Evolent bulls out there, for the most part analysts are generally cautious about the company.
According to data compiled by Yahoo! Finance, collectively they are expecting quite the dip in profitability for the niche healthcare company next year, to $0.69 per share from this year's anticipated $0.92. This, despite a projected improvement on the top line during that stretch, to $1.64 billion from $1.36 billion.
