By Jed Graham
Walmart announced the closing of 51 health centers and shut down its virtual care offering, saying they lack a sustainable business model for the retail giant. The move follows a report last week that UnitedHealth will shut down its Optum virtual health business.
Walmart launched the health centers in 2019 with an eye toward making a major push into health services. Over this period, there have been rumors about Walmart acquiring Humana. Amazon has moved more aggressively into the health clinic business with its $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical.
The lack of traction for Walmart Health Centers is a positive for the likes of CVS Health, which fully embraced the health center model with its 2017 acquisition of Aetna.
Walmart still has nearly 4,600 pharmacies within its stores and says it's been expanding their breadth of services. It also has more than 200 vision centers.
Walmart fiscal Q1 earnings are due May 16. CVS reports Q1 results on Wednesday morning.
The retreat from virtual care by UnitedHealth and Walmart reflects the business and competitive challenges that crashed one-time highflier Teladoc. It remains to be seen whether a winnowing of the industry will allow Teladoc to return to growth. Amazon expanded its Amazon Clinic virtual health offering nationally last August.
WMT
In early Tuesday stock market action, Walmart stock dipped 0.4% to 60.02. Amazon rose 0.9% and CVS 0.3%. TDOC was inactive.
WMT has found support at its 50-day moving average as carves out a flat base with a 61.66 buy point. A move past 60.89 would break a trendline from recent highs and flash an early entry opportunity.
Be sure to read IBD's The Big Picture column after each trading day to get the latest on the prevailing stock market trend and what it means for your trading decisions.
View this article at Investors.com
https://www.investors.com/news/walmart-exits-health-centers-virtual-health-wmt-stock/
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April 30, 2024 08:32 ET (12:32 GMT)
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