DaVita (NYSE:DVA) Lowered to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of DaVita (NYSE:DVA) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Monday.

DVA has been the subject of a number of other reports. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of DaVita from $133.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Monday. Truist Financial raised their price objective on DaVita from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. UBS Group upped their target price on DaVita from $113.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of DaVita from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, DaVita presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $121.33.

DaVita Stock Performance

Shares of DVA stock opened at $136.87 on Monday. DaVita has a fifty-two week low of $71.51 and a fifty-two week high of $145.04. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $133.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $113.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.95, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market cap of $12.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.55, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.04.

DaVita (NYSE:DVA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by $0.43. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.03 billion. DaVita had a return on equity of 68.52% and a net margin of 6.61%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.58 earnings per share. Analysts predict that DaVita will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider James O. Hearty sold 26,164 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.64, for a total value of $3,130,260.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,424,384.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other DaVita news, COO Michael David Staffieri sold 29,488 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.81, for a total value of $3,532,957.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 37,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,515,279.47. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider James O. Hearty sold 26,164 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.64, for a total value of $3,130,260.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 20,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,424,384.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,540 shares of company stock valued at $16,551,071 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of DVA. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in DaVita by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,320,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $662,161,000 after purchasing an additional 145,711 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of DaVita by 21.3% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,667,255 shares of the company’s stock worth $157,606,000 after buying an additional 292,767 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in DaVita by 421.8% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,095,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,518,000 after buying an additional 885,195 shares in the last quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. grew its position in DaVita by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. now owns 905,830 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,895,000 after acquiring an additional 27,660 shares during the period. Finally, 8 Knots Management LLC acquired a new position in DaVita during the fourth quarter worth $89,504,000. 90.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About DaVita

DaVita Inc provides kidney dialysis services for patients suffering from chronic kidney failure in the United States. The company operates kidney dialysis centers and provides related lab services in outpatient dialysis centers. It also offers outpatient, hospital inpatient, and home-based hemodialysis services; operates clinical laboratories that provide routine laboratory tests for dialysis and other physician-prescribed laboratory tests for ESRD patients; and management and administrative services to outpatient dialysis centers.