By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com -- The announcement that Teladoc Inc (NYSE:TDOC) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) have teamed up to launch Teladoc on Alexa has raised questions for Jefferies analyst Glen Santangelo.
Santangelo reiterated a hold rating and $82 price target on Teladoc, telling investors in a note that while they believe the tie-up will help to increase utilization for Teladoc, over the longer-term, they feel "patients who are willing to use Alexa for their health care needs may potentially have/develop a deeper loyalty to Alexa than TDOC."
"This raises the risk that AMZN would have leverage in the future if it decided to terminate its relationship with TDOC or move in another direction," he added.
Teladoc said Monday that customers in the U.S. with certain Amazon Echo devices will be able to connect with a Teladoc care provider 24/7 for general medical needs.
Santangelo went on to say that while there are currently very few details, the announcement does little to address "three main fundamental concerns surrounding TDOC – 1) slowing membership growth, 2) disappointing growth in chronic care (Livongo), and 3) lack of visibility of long-term demand for Primary 360."
Teladoc shares fell 2.65% Wednesday.