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GoodRx Stock Tumbles Over 40% After Pulling Guidance, Analyst Blames Kroger For the Slump -Breaking

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© Reuters. Following the release of guidance, GoodRx (GDRX). Stock tumbles more than 40%. Analyst blames Kroger for the slump

Premarket trading on Tuesday saw shares of GoodRx Holdings fall more than 40% after GoodRx pulled its FY 2022 outlook.

GoodRx adjusted earnings per share were 10c. That’s higher than the consensus expectations of 8c. The total revenue for the quarter was $203.3 million. This is 27% more than the YoY growth rate and higher than the analysts’ expectations at $200.4 million.

GDRX anticipates revenue of $190 million for Q2. This is well below consensus estimates at $216.1 millions. According to the company, it won’t provide FY guidance.

GoodRx said that a large grocery chain took steps to limit the pharmacy benefit manager’s (PBM) acceptance for certain drugs. The issue left a direct impact on the company’s consumers as the majority of discounts on GoodRx products are provided by PBMs.

GoodRx suffered a steep decline in its volume, and this is expected to have a greater effect on their Q2 and FY performances.

GDRX stock fell by 4 analysts in the wake of earnings. Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney resigned to In Line with an Outperform rating and a target price of $12.00, which is down from $28.00.

“While [the PBMs] decision may get reversed, the revenue concentration risk was a negative surprise to us and followed last quarter’s warning that depressed new prescription starts would negatively impact GDRX’s Prescription Transaction Revenue segment (75%+ of revenue). All in, we have significantly less visibility into – and confidence in — GDRX’s topline trends,” Mahaney said in a client note.

Raymond James analyst John Ransom downgraded the stock to Market Perform, from Outperform. He also cited the same reason. While GDRX didn’t mention which grocer stopped accepting GoodRx discounting cards, Ransom said that checks show it is Kroger (NYSE:).

“One PBM tells us that Kroger is directing traffic away from the GDRX discount card to other discount programs, including its own card. Although we have heard many theories about why Kroger took this action, it is still unclear. At any rate, we think the risk that KR remains out of GDRX’s network is real. While the company may, indeed be able to keep its retail network intact and offset some damage, we think that the PTR customer base is smaller than it otherwise would have been, maybe permanently and that the stock will remain in the penalty box until visibility improves,” Ransom wrote to clients.

By Senad Karaahmetovic

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