Shares of Teladoc (NYSE: TDOC) are down more than 2% in premarket trading Wednesday after the company reported a worse-than-expected adjusted EBITDA forecast for Q1 2022.

For Q4 2021, Teladoc reported a loss per share of 7 cents, compared to a loss per share of $3.07 in the year-ago period and an estimated loss per share of 55 cents. Revenue came in at $554.2 million, up 45% YOY and above the analyst consensus of $546 million.

The company reported adjusted EBITDA of $77.1 million, up 53% YOY, compared to the consensus estimates of $71.8 million.

For the first quarter of 2022, Teladoc expects a net loss per share between $0.60 and $0.50 and revenue in the range of $565 million to $571 million, below analyst estimates of $584.6 million. The company estimates adjusted EBITDA in the range of $51 million to $55 million in Q1 2022, significantly below the analyst consensus of $78 million.

For the full-fiscal 2022, Teladoc expects adjusted EBITDA between $330 million to $355 million, compared to the expected $351 million. The company anticipates revenue of $2.55 billion to $2.65 billion, while analysts were looking for $2.58 billion.

“Teladoc Health took a huge step forward in bringing true whole-person care to life for consumers and clients in 2021,” said Jason Gorevic, CEO of Teladoc Health.

“Healthcare has a ‘new normal’ resulting from the pandemic’s intersection of health needs and virtual solutions that has forever changed the experience of healthcare.”

Barclays analyst Steve Valiquette reiterated an Equal Weight rating and lowered the price target to $77.00 per share from the prior $95.00.

“The good news is that the implied trends exiting ’22 would set the stage for a potentially robust ’23 if the company is able to capture the step-up in revenues and improved operating leverage throughout this year,” Valiquette said in a client note.

Needham & Company analyst Ryan McDonald lowered the price target to $100.00 per share from the prior $170.00 after a “strong close to FY21.”

“Investor focus will be on TDOC's noisy FY22 guidance, which shifted the weighting of the revenue contribution and margin expansion to 2H22 as the company noted that it expects multiple chronic care customers to launch in early 2H rather than Jan. 1. While this would normally be cause for concern, management noted that the customers are already contracted and the FY22 outlook remains essentially inline with prior expectations. While TDOC looks to be more of a 30% growth story in FY22 with mid-teens EBITDA margins, we view TDOC's current discounted valuation of 4.3x our FY22 revenue estimate as attractive for that mix of growth and profitability,” McDonald wrote in a memo.

By Senad Karaahmetovic | [email protected]