Will Teladoc Inc (TDOC) Disappoint This Earnings Season?

Teladoc, Inc. (NYSE:TDOC) is set to report first-quarter 2016 results on May 10, after the market closes. Last quarter, the company posted a positive earnings surprise of 4.88%. Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Factors to be Considered this Quarter

Teladoc anticipates revenues between $26 million and $27 million in the first-quarter 2016. The company is likely to witness revenue growth on the back of robust subscription access fees and visit fees.

Further, the company has likely displayed growth in its paid membership base. For the first quarter, membership is expected to total approximately 14.5–15 million members.

Moreover, the medical service provider has likely witnessed growth in visits. In fact, the total number of completed visits is projected to be in the range of 220,000–230,000.

However, Teladoc anticipates net loss per to be between 36 cents and 38 cents.

Also, the company expects an adjusted EBITDA loss between $11 million and $12 million in the to-be-reported quarter. Higher operating expenses and competitive operating environment have likely weighed on the bottom line.

With respect to the surprise trend, the company delivered positive surprises in two of the last four quarters, with an average beat of 7.08%.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Teladoc is likely to beat on earnings this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: Teladoc has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at a loss of 38 cents.

Zacks Rank: Teladoc carries a Zacks Rank #3, which increases the predictive power of ESP. However, an ESP of 0.00% makes surprise prediction difficult.

We caution against Sell-rated stocks (Zacks Rank #4 or 5) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies from the medical sector that you may want to consider as these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:

Collegium Pharmaceutical, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLL) has an Earnings ESP of +30.00% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is slated to report first-quarter earnings on May 10.

Aldeyra Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALDX) has an Earnings ESP of +11.54% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is set to report first-quarter earnings on May 11.

Chiasma, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHMA) has an Earnings ESP of +4.76% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is set to report first-quarter earnings on May 11.

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