Kesler Norman & Wride LLC Boosts Stock Position in DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA)

Kesler Norman & Wride LLC raised its holdings in DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) by 40.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,874 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,397 shares during the period. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC’s holdings in DaVita were worth $729,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC boosted its stake in DaVita by 659.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 177,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,082,000 after buying an additional 154,061 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in shares of DaVita by 16.6% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 3,992 shares of the company’s stock worth $654,000 after acquiring an additional 569 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its holdings in DaVita by 313.6% in the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 9,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,574,000 after purchasing an additional 7,281 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec acquired a new position in DaVita during the third quarter worth approximately $1,820,000. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in DaVita during the third quarter worth approximately $454,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on DVA shares. Barclays upped their price objective on DaVita from $164.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $184.00 price objective on DaVita in a report on Friday, February 21st. Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of DaVita in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of DaVita from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $166.33.

DaVita Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DVA opened at $154.37 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 23.18, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.21. DaVita Inc. has a 1-year low of $125.64 and a 1-year high of $179.60. The business has a 50-day moving average of $156.49 and a 200-day moving average of $157.41. The company has a market capitalization of $12.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.37, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.99.

DaVita (NYSE:DVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $2.24 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14 by $0.10. DaVita had a net margin of 7.31% and a return on equity of 115.48%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that DaVita Inc. will post 10.76 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.