Teladoc, American Well rise as sun sets on Amazon's telehealth unit

AMERICAN WELL

25/08/2022 18:47

(Updates. Adds analyst comments, background)
    ** Shares of Teladoc Health Inc  TDOC.N  up 3.3% and
American Well Corp's  AMWL.N  stock rising 5.5% on Thurs as Wall
Street weighs Amazon.com Inc's  AMZN.O  plans to shutter its
virtual healthcare unit by year-end
    ** AMZN exec on Weds told staff that Amazon Care, which lets
business customers offer digital or at-home doctors' visits to
their personnel, had shortcomings despite its efforts
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N3002HQ
    ** Last month, AMZN announced $3.5 bln acquisition of
primary care provider One Medical  ONEM.O , including adding
brick-and-mortar doctor's offices for the first time
    ** Stocks of other telehealth providers also gaining on
Thurs: Goodrx Holdings Inc  GDRX.O  2.6%, Hims & Hers Health Inc
 HIMS.N  2.7% and Evolent Health Inc  EVH.N  1.4%
    ** Jefferies says while latest AMZN news may be
incrementally positive for TDOC and AMWL, its view more tempered
    ** E-commerce giant "likely to shift its investment dollars
into ONEM’s virtual care platform, and accordingly view AMZN’s
announcement more of a pivot than a retreat," Jefferies says
    ** The 'sunsetting' of Amazon Care speaks to the value of
established consumer-facing healthcare brands which have taken
not just money but time and consumer trust to build, says SVB
Securities analyst Stephanie Davis
    ** Davis believes AMZN is not a true competitive threat to
TDOC
    ** According to a CNBC report https://cnb.cx/3Tj2vxm last
year, Teladoc CEO Jason Gorevic had called the threat from
Amazon Care 'overrated' 
    ** AMZN's shares climb 1.9% on the session

 (Reporting by Lance Tupper and Amruta Khandekar
Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed
are his own)
 ((lance.tupper@thomsonreuters.com
lance.tupper@tr.com 1-332-219-1430))