On January 4, 2020, Moneywise featured a reader’s pretend portfolio. We thank this individual again for the enthusiastic participation.

This week, we discuss Teladoc Health. “I’m thinking about buying it,” our reader said.

What a prescient choice, given the recent financial market volatility amid concerns over the spread of Covid-19 virus, with various health experts indicating that consideration of utilising”telehealth” type contact approaches to reach affected individuals and families in remote areas and/or requiring informal quarantine.

TDOC has created a tremendous buzz on stock analysts’ websites because Teladoc Health is a multinational telemedicine and virtual healthcare company based in the United States (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teladoc_Health).

Moneywise immediately thought of the conceptual ramifications for health care in remote areas, including our tiny island: less expensive out-of-pocket trips to US health centres for non-critical treatment, access to immediate care from the privacy and convenience of home, consultations with primary care and global medical specialists, and more medical/pharmaceutical information and advice available — all through telemedicine portals. Our government’s mandate in seeking lower-cost healthcare for all may have (or should) encompassed consideration of these forward-thinking services.

Teladoc Health divides its services into six categories: platform and programme services, guidance and support, expert medical services, mental health services, telehealth, and integrated virtual care. As a software company, Teladoc Health is involved with artificial intelligence, analytics, and “licensable platform services”.

The company primarily uses telephone and videoconferencing software to provide on-demand remote medical care, with patients able to log on to the service at any time and be connected with a board-certified, state-licensed physician within several minutes.

Let’s look at some of the stock criteria by following the Moneywise Individual Stock Selection Checklist, attached.

Type TDOC to do your own internet research that will yield tremendous results. Moneywise’s favourite stock review platform for us regular people is Yahoo Finance. TDOC: billed as the first and largest telemedicine company in the United States, Teladoc Health was launched in 2002 at $19 per share and has acquired companies such as BetterHelp in 2015, Best Doctors in 2017, and Advance Medical in 2018. In 2019, the company was already active in 130 countries and served around 27 million members.

TDOC share value stood at $134.41 on Thursday, March 5, as this article went to press, up 49 per cent this year alone.

Called the Uber of healthcare by the Seeking Alpha website, here are some financial data facts as of March 5, 2020.

Revenue: $553 million, up from $123 million in 2016

Net Profit (loss) — ($98 million) TDOC has not yet turned a profit. According to Simply Wall St 2019Dec07, the consensus from 21 Healthcare Services analysts that TDOC is on the verge of breakeven with a final loss in 2021 and profitability in 2022. Indicators suggest that TDOC must have annual growth of around 48 per cent for these predicted years that is actually a higher statistic than analysts’ expectations at Forward Guidance below. https://simplywall.st/news/when-will-teladoc-health-inc-nysetdoc-breakeven/

Debt equity ratio: total cash $517 million of total assets of 1.6 billion. Total debt of $470 million calculates to debt-equity ratio of 46.40 per cent.

Market capitalisation: $9 billion

Levered free cash flow: amount of cash remaining after paying all financial obligations. It is a measure of a company’s ability to expand its business

Beta (risk) rating: 1.35 compared to average market risk of 1 beta.

Dividend yield: company has not generated any dividend distribution as yet.

Analyst ratings: with 20 analysts listed at the average, TDOC is considered a buy.

Major holders of TDOC shares at approximately 38 million shares out of 73 million shares outstanding are the top ten: Blackrock Inc, Vanguard Group, Baillie Gifford, JP Morgan Chase, Wellington Management, Waddell & Reed Financial, Bank of America, AllianceBernstein, Macquarie Group, and Zevenbergen Capital Investments. Numerous mutual funds and others are invested as well.

ESG: environmental, social, and corporate governance quality score is three out of ten. A score of one indicates low governance risk while ten is the highest governance risk measure.

The company scores well on board, one, and shareholder rights, three, while audit, five and compensation, six, are at the higher end. ESG ratings measure a company’s exposure, resilience, and sustainability to industry-specific material risks and how well a company manages those risks.

Forward guidance: analysts’ earnings estimates are $709 million (2020) and $875 million (2021) with next five years growth at 20 per cent per annum.

Sources

Link to Yahoo Finance for TDOC: https://tinyurl.com/rsfd4kj

Seeking Alpha https://seekingalpha.com/

Teladoc shares jump on revenue beat, prospect of virus-driven telemedicine surge https://tinyurl.com/rqnyczj

Bruce Kamich, TheStreet.com, earnings, Coronavirus fears make Teladoc Health a good call, https://tinyurl.com/wdpmmpj

Disclaimer:Moneywise and author Martha Harris Myron does not own, nor have owned any positions in this stock or company. The above following article is for information purposes and cannot and is not a recommendation to buy, sell or otherwise participate in this stock or any other investment product.

• Martha Harris Myron CPA CFP JSM: Masters of Law — international tax and financial services. Dual citizen: Bermudian/US. Pondstraddler Life, financial perspectives for Bermuda islanders and their globally mobile connections on the Great Atlantic Pond. Contact: martha.myron@gmail.com