Amazon plans on shutting down its in-house telehealth service
Amazon.com (AMZN) just announced that it would be shutting down its in-house telehealth service for employees, which is giving stocks within the sector a boost this morning. Teladoc Health Inc (NYSE:TDOC), in particular, is seeing a bounce. The stock was last seen up 5.6% at $35.55.
The equity is attempting to recover from a five-day skid on the charts that began early last week and lasted until Monday. The stock was traveling dangerously close to its May 12, four-year low of $27.38, but a recent floor near the $31 mark helped capture most of this pullback. Regardless, TDOC is down a whopping 63.3% this year, thanks in part to a post-earnings bear gap the security suffered in April, as well as recent pressure at the 90-day moving average.
Analysts remain hesitant. Of the 22 in coverage, 16 say "hold," with one "strong sell" on the table. Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus price target of $36.73 is a slim 2.5% premium to last night's close.
Short-term options traders have also taken a bearish stance. The security's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.29 sits higher than 80% of readings from the past year. In other words, these traders have rarely been more put-biased.
Short sellers, meanwhile, have been hitting the exits, dropping 16% in the last two reporting periods. There's still plenty of pessimism to be unwound here, though, with the 30.38 million shares sold short making up 19% of the stock's available float, or nearly a week's worth of pent-up buying power.