What happened
Shares of Teladoc Health (TDOC -1.35%) were falling 2.9% at 11:13 a.m. ET Monday mornings after more analysts lowered their price target on the online virtual healthcare specialist.
Analysts at both Deutsche Bank (DB -0.75%) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM 0.29%) dropped their one-year price targets on Teladoc, with the former going from $31 per share to $27 per share and the latter going to $33 per share from $35 per share.
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So what
Deutsche Bank analyst George Hill maintained his hold rating on the company, while JP Morgan's Lisa Gill kept her neutral rating.
Teladoc had been primed to benefit from pandemic-era lockdowns and hadn't counted on consumers being so ready to return to in-office doctor visits. Teladoc lets patients seamlessly schedule online visits with doctors for consultations without ever having to leave the house.
Membership rolls shot higher during lockdowns with Teladoc adding 15 million people in 2020; it added only 1.8 million in 2021. Now new memberships are starting to pick back up again. But Teladoc's Livongo Health acquisition imploded, and it was forced to write down almost the entire cost of the purchase last year, taking a $13.4 billion charge to goodwill, or $83 per share.
Now what
Management reported a pretty solid fourth-quarter performance, but its guidance for the coming first quarter suggested growth would not be robust. The full year seems to be on track for gains, but the dip in the road expected for the short term has many taking a wait-and-see approach to the virtual healthcare specialist.
