DaVita (NYSE:DVA) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $177.06, but opened at $154.00. DaVita shares last traded at $155.26, with a volume of 1,182,682 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Barclays boosted their target price on DaVita from $150.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, DaVita has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $161.80.

DaVita Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $161.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $157.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 15.78. The company has a market cap of $12.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.94.

DaVita (NYSE:DVA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $2.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.14 by $0.10. DaVita had a return on equity of 88.18% and a net margin of 6.53%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that DaVita Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new stake in DaVita in the third quarter valued at approximately $135,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its holdings in DaVita by 17.2% in the third quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 2,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $368,000 after acquiring an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in DaVita in the third quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in DaVita by 56.4% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 330 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in DaVita by 93.6% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 31,316 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,134,000 after acquiring an additional 15,138 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.