What happened
Teladoc Health (TDOC -0.71%) stock was looking a bit pale and under the weather at the end of the trading week. The bellwether telehealth company saw its shares slump by nearly 1% on Friday, on an otherwise very bullish day for the stock market that saw the S&P 500 index rise by over 2%. An analyst’s price target cut was the action that gave Teladoc its slight fever.
So what
Friday morning, Bank of America Securities’ Allen Lutz reduced his price target for Teladoc. It’s now $26 per share; previously he had pegged it as being worth $30. He’s maintaining his recommendation on the stock, but that’s not saying much — it was and remains neutral.
The reasoning behind Lutz’s move wasn’t immediately clear, but Teladoc isn’t a particularly beloved stock these days.
It was hugely popular during the pandemic, as shutdowns and lock-ins played perfectly to the specialty healthcare company’s core activity of providing telehealth services. Since then, on hopes that the worst of the coronavirus is behind it, much of the world has willingly returned to in-person medical visits.
Meanwhile, in recent months Teladoc hasn’t announced any initiatives or posted financial results encouraging enough to bring back hordes of bullish investors.
Now what
That’s a big reason why Bank of America’s Lutz isn’t the only prognosticator growing colder on Teladoc. At the end of 2022 several of his peers also knocked down their price targets on the shares.
Unfortunately for the company these were financial heavyweights like BofA — Goldman Sachs‘ Cindy Motz cut her target slightly, to $32 per share from the preceding $34, and Citigroup‘s Daniel Grosslight reduced his to $33 from $36. Both maintained their neutral recommendations.
Citigroup is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Bank of America is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bank of America, Goldman Sachs Group, and Teladoc Health. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
