DaVita Inc. (DVA) Stock

DaVita Inc. (DVA) is a Healthcare stock trading at $177.70 (as of 2026-08-25), with a market capitalization of $11.34B and a trailing P/E of 13.4. Figures are sourced from first-party U.S. SEC EDGAR filings and market data.

DaVita Inc. provides kidney dialysis services for patients suffering from chronic kidney failure. The company operates kidney dialysis centers and provides related lab services in outpatient dialysis centers. It also provides outpatient, hospital inpatient, and home-based hemodialysis services; owns 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. In addition, the company provides disease management services to 16,000 patients in risk-based integrated care arrangements and 7,000 patients in other integrated care arrangements; vascular access services; clinical research programs; physician services; and comprehensive kidney care services. As of December 31, 2021, it provided dialysis and administrative services in the United States through a network of 2,815 outpatient dialysis centers serving approximately 203,100 patients; and operated 339 outpatient dialysis centers located in 10 countries outside of the United States serving approximately 39,900 patients. Further, the company provides acute inpatient dialysis services in approximately 850 hospitals and related laboratory services in the United States. The company was formerly known as DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. and changed its name to DaVita Inc. in September 2016. DaVita Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

Understand DaVita Inc.: how it makes money

DaVita operates the U.S.'s largest outpatient kidney dialysis network, earning per-treatment fees from Medicare and private insurers for patients with end-stage renal disease. Revenue is overwhelmingly U.S. in-center dialysis, with a smaller international footprint and an emerging integrated-care line that wraps services around the full patient journey.

Profit is the spread between a government-set rate per dialysis treatment and the cost to deliver that treatment, so the entire P&L scales with volume at a capped price and expands or contracts with how tightly the company runs its per-session cost base.

Business quality (Strong): Government-regulated pricing caps the upside, but a 16% operating margin and a multiple nearly half the industry average suggest the market already prices DaVita as a low-growth utility with a durable cash flow.

Valuation: At 13× earnings, DVA trades 48% below the Healthcare Services average (25×). Note: the low multiple may reflect one-time earnings items.

Bull case

IKC cuts downstream costs: Management cited that IKC patients show better access, lower early-dialysis costs, and fewer hospitalizations (latest_call). If that advantage scales, DaVita captures value beyond the dialysis chair and differentiates against a price-taker model.
48% valuation discount to peer set: DaVita trades at 13.3x earnings versus the Healthcare Services industry average of 25x, a 48% gap (valuation). For a business with 16% operating margins and 5% revenue growth, that discount implies the market is underpricing the durability of Medicare per-treatment cash flows.
International M&A plus organic push: Management stated international growth is expected to combine M&A and organic expansion with margin improvement (latest_call). Adding profitable non-U.S. centers diversifies the volume base away from a flat U.S. market while expanding the rate base.

Bear case

Core U.S. volumes are shrinking: U.S. dialysis treatments fell 1.1% in 2025 (latest_call). Because revenue is essentially rate times volume at a government-set rate, declining sessions mean the company must find the 5% revenue growth elsewhere, and any further volume erosion hits the top line directly.
Cost per treatment outrunning rates: Patient care costs per treatment rose 5.9% year over year (latest_call). With Medicare rates largely fixed, that cost inflation compresses the per-session spread and squeezes the 16% operating margin unless productivity gains keep pace.
Mortality assumptions signal plateau risk: Management assumes no improvement in non-flu mortality during 2026 (latest_call). Without a mortality tailwind, the ESRD patient pool grows only with new dialysis initiations, ceding the demographic expansion that historically powered volume growth.

Valuation — source: SEC EDGAR (first-party)
Price	$177.70
Market Cap	$11.34B
P/E Ratio	13.4
EV / EBITDA	3.7
Price / Sales	0.81
FCF Yield	14.2%
DCF Value (model)	$584.05
DCF Upside vs Price	228.7%

Profitability & Growth — source: SEC EDGAR
Revenue (TTM)	$13.64B
Net Margin	5.5%
Revenue Growth (YoY)	5.2%
EPS Growth (YoY)	56.5%
FCF Growth (YoY)	57.6%

Financial Health — source: SEC EDGAR
Altman Z-Score	1.60 (distress)

Valuation vs Sector & Industry
Stock P/E	13.4
Sector P/E (Healthcare)	21.9
Industry P/E (Healthcare Services)	25.4
vs Sector	-39.0%
vs Industry	-47.4%

Smart-Money Activity — SEC Form 4 / 13F / Congressional disclosures
Top Institutional Holder	Berkshire Hathaway Inc ($4.63B)
Institutional Holders Tracked	10
Congressional Trades (recent)	9

Company
Sector	Healthcare
Industry	Healthcare Services
CEO	Javier J. Rodriguez
Employees	76,000
Country	US
IPO Date	1995-10-31

Related Companies (Healthcare Services; 8 comparable companies)

Data as of 2026-08-25.

Figures sourced from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC EDGAR) filings and market data. Not personalized investment advice.