DaVita (NYSE:DVA) Sets New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Shares of DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $169.12 and last traded at $168.37, with a volume of 216981 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.51.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on DVA. Truist Financial increased their price objective on DaVita from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of DaVita from $139.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of DaVita from $169.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on DaVita from $150.00 to $164.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, DaVita has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $161.80.

DaVita Trading Down 1.3 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 15.78, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.02, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $158.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $148.87.

DaVita (NYSE:DVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $2.59 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by ($0.17). The business had revenue of $3.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. DaVita had a net margin of 6.53% and a return on equity of 88.18%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.85 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that DaVita Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at DaVita

In other DaVita news, CEO Javier Rodriguez sold 50,000 shares of DaVita stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.05, for a total transaction of $8,252,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 837,835 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $138,284,666.75. The trade was a 5.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new position in DaVita in the third quarter worth $25,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of DaVita by 58.6% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 211 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in DaVita during the 2nd quarter valued at about $43,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in DaVita by 90.6% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 326 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in DaVita during the second quarter worth about $48,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.12% of the company’s stock.

DaVita Company Profile

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.