Teladoc Health Delivers Mixed Results, 'Sobering' Guidance: 6 Analysts Provide Key Takeaways

Benzinga – by Avi Kapoor, Benzinga Staff Writer.

Shares of Teladoc Health Inc (NYSE: TDOC) tanked in early trading on Wednesday, after the company misses revenue expectations for the fourth quarter and issued weak first-quarter guidance.

The results came amid an exciting earnings season. Here are some key analyst takeaways from the release.

• RBC Capital Markets analyst Sean Dodge maintained an Outperform rating, while reducing the price target from $30 to $25.
• DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria reiterated a Neutral rating, while cutting the price target from $22 to $18.
• Piper Sandler analyst Jessica Tassan reaffirmed an Overweight rating, while trimming the price target from $30 to $25.
• Stifel analyst David Grossman maintained a Hold rating and price target of $21.
• Truist analyst Jailendra Singh reiterated a Hold rating and price target of $23.
• Guggenheim analyst Jack Wallace reaffirmed a Neutral rating on the stock.

Check out other analyst stock ratings.

RBC Capital Markets: Teladoc Health reported mixed results for the fourth quarter, with 2024 EBITDA outlook that brackets consensus, Dodge said.

“Both revenue growth and EBITDA margin expansion should be led by Integrated Care (IC) with LSD%-MSD% and +150-250 bps, respectively,” the analyst wrote. “From a consolidated EBITDA standpoint, this is consistent with what we previewed, but the implied YoY revenue growth of 1.3-5.1% is notably below the ~6% assumed in consensus and our 5% estimate.”

DA Davidson: Teladoc’s fourth-quarter report missed expectations “on several key KPIs across both Integrated Care and BetterHelp,” Luria said. Management’s three-year outlook suggests “MSD annual revenue growth at best.”

While margin accretion should continue to be strong, “the incremental weakness in growth is only partially offset by the profitability accretion,” the analyst further stated.

Piper Sandler: Teladoc reported mixed fourth-quarter results and “sobering CY24 guide,” Tassan said.

Although Integrated Care revenues grew by 7.6% year-on-year to $384.4 million, it came in short of expectations of $389.2 million, the analyst stated. “Integrated Care adjusted EBITDA of $56.0M handily beat our $47.1M estimate as margins expanded to 14.6% vs 12.2% in the prior year period,” she added.

Stifel: Teladoc announced its 2024 revenue guidance below consensus, “with cost actions yielding 2024 EBITDA in-line with consensus,” Grossman said. The company’s 2025 guidance “assumed continued revenue headwinds.”

“The company seems to have made a good faith effort to provide guidance that acknowledges secular headwinds in both segments of its business (BetterHelp/BH and Integrated Care/ IC) and highlighting cost actions to drive profit growth,” the analyst added.

Truist Securities: “After the last 2.5 years without a long-term outlook, TDOC feels it now has enough visibility over the next couple of years as its product portfolio has stabilized,” Singh wrote.

“TDOC has a large book of general medical & virtual urgent care with ~90 mln members and a virtual business care that includes mental health and other smaller products,” the analyst stated. “This market has been overall well-penetrated and is not a substantial grower, though TDOC expects to continue to take share there.”

Guggenheim Securities: “While there were definitely things to like (14% growth in chronic care enrollment, ’25 EBITDA guidance of at least $425M), we think questions about BetterHelp growth (guidance for 1Q being down 3-6% and “flat to up” for the full year) and hiccups onboarding new chronic care customers led investors to sell the stock in the aftermarket (down -18%),” Wallace said.

While the 2024 and 2025 EBITDA outlook appears achievable, investors are likely to take a “wait and see” approach, he added.

TDOC Price Action: Shares of Teladoc declined by 22.83% to $15.82 at the time of publication Wednesday.

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