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

DaVita (NYSE:DVA) was downgraded by StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on DVA. UBS Group raised their price objective on DaVita from $113.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. TheStreet raised DaVita from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Barclays started coverage on DaVita in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $133.00 price target for the company. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on DaVita from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $118.50.

DaVita Stock Performance

Shares of DVA stock opened at $129.96 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $11.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $129.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $108.29. DaVita has a 12-month low of $71.51 and a 12-month high of $141.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.65.

DaVita (NYSE:DVA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.53 by $0.34. DaVita had a return on equity of 64.42% and a net margin of 5.70%. The firm had revenue of $3.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.11 EPS. DaVita’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that DaVita will post 9.23 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Javier Rodriguez sold 67,603 shares of DaVita stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $8,525,414.33. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 488,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $61,629,578.67. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Javier Rodriguez sold 67,603 shares of DaVita stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $8,525,414.33. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 488,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $61,629,578.67. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathleen Alyce Waters sold 11,285 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.73, for a total value of $1,362,438.05. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 81,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,814,986.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,540 shares of company stock worth $16,551,071 over the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On DaVita

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of DVA. Norges Bank acquired a new position in DaVita in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $116,373,000. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in DaVita by 421.8% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,095,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,518,000 after purchasing an additional 885,195 shares during the period. 8 Knots Management LLC acquired a new stake in DaVita in the fourth quarter worth approximately $89,504,000. Doma Perpetual Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in DaVita in the fourth quarter worth approximately $53,076,000. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in shares of DaVita by 226.3% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 659,372 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,592,000 after buying an additional 457,285 shares in the last quarter. 90.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.