Teladoc may have to choose between 'the lesser of two evils,' analyst says in downgrade

Shares of Teladoc Health Inc. were dropping more than 6% in Wednesday morning trading after Guggenheim analyst Sandy Draper downgraded the stock to sell from neutral. He wrote that Teladoc's revenue and earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) could face further pressure from various macroeconomic factors, including uncertainty that is pushing out sales cycles for Teladoc as well as inflationary constraints on consumers. Draper sees "limited growth" potential in the near term for Teladoc's "base" virtual medical-care business. He also worries about a slowdown in the company's chronic-care business and "deteriorating" trends at BetterHelp, Teladoc's virtual mental-health platform. "When we consider the cost of BetterHelp being ~$300 a month, and that ~70% of U.S. households have less than $100K in annual income, we believe the addressable market shrinks in an inflationary environment with recession fears looming," Draper wrote. "We see BetterHelp as having to choose between 'the lesser of two evils': investing in advertising at a worse ROI [return on investment], or pulling back on advertising and adding fewer new users." Shares of Teladoc have fallen 60% so far this year as the S&P 500 has lost 10%.

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