As the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the move to telemedicine, two investment professionals are following CloudMD, a small cap rapidly expanding in Canada.
As people are avoiding going to doctor's offices and hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine has taken off. Two investment professionals, Bruce Campbell and Keith Schaefer, have called CloudMD Software & Services Inc. (DOC:CSE; DOCRF:OTCQB; 6PH:FSE), a small-cap Canadian telemedicine firm, a top pick.
Bruce Campbell, founder and portfolio manager of Stonecastle Investment Management, spoke about CloudMD on April 27 on BNN:
"The first top pick is CloudMD Software, a technological medical play. We've tried to look at opportunities that are really going to be able to take advantage of Covid and this is one of the ones that we think is; what they do is telemedicine.
"The jumping off point for TeleHealth is here and I think CloudMD is the best pure-play TeleHealth stock right now." - Keith Schaefer
If you look back at a year ago, where everyone had to go to the doctor, and now all of the different provinces have opened up billing codes, so that now we don't have to go into a doctor's office. We can do a virtual doctor's visit and the doctor gets paid just like they do with an in-house appointment. Obviously with everything that has happened with this crisis, people really don't want to go into a doctor's office and they need a prescription renewal or something like that.
If you look at CloudMD's peers in the U.S., there is a company called Teladoc, which is a big U.S. company that does the same thing. Obviously, the size of the market is different, but the multiple it trades at is multiple times higher than where CloudMD is.
CloudMD is just starting to gain adoption. They started off here in BC, they have moved to Ontario, and they are going to be rolling out really across the country, so tons of opportunity for a company like this. They will probably change the way that we view our doctor and our healthcare visits going forward."
Keith Schaefer, editor and publisher of Oil & Gas Investments Bulletin, is also following CloudMD, and wrote:
"An entirely new—and highly profitable—industry is being borne out in 2020—TeleHealth. CloudMD Software & Services Inc. (DOC:CSE; DOCRF:OTCQB; 6PH:FSE) is my favorite way to play TeleHealth. It's growing quickly with over 100,000 patients registered on its app and over 3000 doctors in 8 provinces in its Electronic Medical Records—EMR—system. It has MULTIPLE revenue streams and it just moved into Canada's largest market—Ontario—setting up an even faster growth rate.
The recent spread of coronavirus is only accelerating this. Covid-19 has forever changed how we all will think about visiting a hospital or seeing our doctor. We really don't want to do that at all, if possible. It will have a very positive and long lasting impact on TeleHealth.
TeleHealth companies in Canada are getting paid more money for services than bricks-and-mortar clinics, and have a fraction of the costs. Doctors want more of it, patients want more of it, government wants more of it—and the Market REALLY wants more of it. Everybody wins here; there is no downside.
The rapid scale-up and profitability is key for investors.
CloudMD is established, growing quickly and trading at a fraction of its peers. The average multiple of competitors in the sector trade at 5-7x revenue, and CloudMD is trading way below that at 2.5x per revenue. But realize that the Canadian use of telemedicine is still just a fraction of where it is in the U.S—so the quick, early upside is even bigger.
The market desperately wants to own TeleHealth right now. I see CloudMD as the best way to do that in the junior sector (where the leverage is!).
For this stock to have a major run all that needs to happen is for institutional investors to wake-up to the fact that the company exists. That's happening now with the company entering the province of Ontario—which has 14.5 million people—over one-third of Canada's population.
CloudMD is a fully integrated health care company—kind of like a hospital-in-the-sky. They do have five bricks-and-mortar clinics, but they also own their own EMR—Electronic Medical Records—system that operates in eight provinces and is used by over 3,000 doctors and is supported by an in-house 25 person development team. They have their own CloudMD app—which has over 100,000 registered patients already.
The EMR gives CloudMD a recurring monthly revenue stream, which The Street loves. The app gives them high-margin fees from doctors, specialists and groups like massage therapists & counselors. These people are revenue, not costs. As I said, full hospital-in-the-sky. Multiple revenue sources with lower costs.
To schedule a virtual doctor's appointment all that a patient has to do is download the free CloudMD app and then arrange an appointment with one of the doctors. There is zero charge for the patient and they can see a doctor very quickly.
CloudMD can scale up the number of patients VERY quickly—and they are. Every aspect of healthcare that's very fractured and disjointed will now be in the one CloudMD ecosystem.
Everyone wins with this system. Patients, doctors, the medical system, society, even investors. Everyone.
Doctors who have signed up with CloudMD work remotely from home or wherever they are (like their winter home down south). The rapid scale-up potential excites me. CloudMD can add in unlimited number of doctors and patients—so it has a virtually unlimited ability to scale quickly with little incremental cost.
Profit margins are wide and there is no cap on the number of customers that can be handled.
After a patient has an appointment, CloudMD bills the government directly just like every bricks-and-mortar clinic in Canada does. CloudMD records 100% of the revenue and gets to keep 30% of the billing for every patient that is seen through telemedicine, which is actually 10% more than what a bricks-and-mortar clinic receives. That is because the governments are trying to push TeleHealth. The doctor gets the other 70% and doesn't have to deal with any headaches of commuting or running a business.
Without the overhead of a bricks-and-mortar clinic, AND more revenue, CloudMD will be much more profitable than traditional healthcare stocks. Faster scale, more cash flow. And they just entered Canada's largest market. This is the right stock in the right market at the right time. That's the great thing about this business model. It's very scalable, very easy, and it grows very quickly.
CloudMD has been growing its recurring SAAS (Software-as-a-Service) revenue by 30% YoY with its EMR system. But this year the company is expecting that doctor growth to be much much higher—with a new full time sales team and the coronavirus pandemic. SaaS revenue is highly lucrative!
The jumping off point for TeleHealth is here and I think CloudMD is the best pure-play TeleHealth stock right now."
Read Keith Schaefer's entire article here.
Watch Bruce Campbell of StoneCastle Investments share his top picks: CloudMD, Lightspeed and Viemed.
Disclosure:
1) Keith Schaefer: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: CloudMD. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: CloudMD. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. Additional disclosures are listed below.
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Additional Disclosures
Keith Schaefer Disclosures:
CloudMD has reviewed and sponsored this article. The information in this newsletter does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of a corporation or entity, including U.S. Traded Securities or U.S. Quoted Securities, in the United States or to U.S. Persons. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption therefrom. Any public offering of securities in the United States may only be made by means of a prospectus containing detailed information about the corporation or entity and its management as well as financial statements. No securities regulatory authority in the United States has either approved or disapproved of the contents of any newsletter.
Keith Schaefer is not registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"): as a "broker-dealer" under the Exchange Act, as an "investment adviser" under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, or in any other capacity. He is also not registered with any state securities commission or authority as a broker-dealer or investment advisor or in any other capacity.
Bruce Campbell, Stonecastle Investment Management:
A guest firm/affiliate holds a position in CloudMD. There is no guest position held, members of his household do not hold positions and CloudMD is not an investment banking client.