Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Takes Position in DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 1,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $224,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its position in shares of DaVita by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 15,939 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,670,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of DaVita by 18.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 657 shares of the company’s stock worth $91,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its position in shares of DaVita by 0.5% during the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 24,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,316,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of DaVita by 1.0% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 15,088 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,426,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meridian Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of DaVita by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,921 shares of the company’s stock worth $620,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. 90.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at DaVita

In other DaVita news, Director Barbara J. Desoer sold 5,030 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.81, for a total transaction of $698,214.30. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,954 shares in the company, valued at $1,520,524.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on DVA shares. Barclays increased their target price on DaVita from $133.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. StockNews.com downgraded DaVita from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 8th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective on DaVita from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $144.67.

DaVita Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of DVA stock opened at $140.24 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.95, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.43. DaVita Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.51 and a 52-week high of $147.93. The company has a market capitalization of $12.30 billion, a PE ratio of 15.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s fifty day moving average is $138.14 and its 200 day moving average is $125.13.

DaVita (NYSE:DVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by $0.43. DaVita had a return on equity of 68.52% and a net margin of 6.61%. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.58 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that DaVita Inc. will post 9.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

DaVita 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.