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Should Value Investors Buy DaVita (DVA) Stock?

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Here at Zacks, we focus on our proven ranking system, which places an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, to find winning stocks. But we also understand that investors develop their own strategies, so we are constantly looking at the latest trends in value, growth, and momentum to find strong companies for our readers.

Of these, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. Value investors rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.

In addition to the Zacks Rank, investors looking for stocks with specific traits can utilize our Style Scores system. Of course, value investors will be most interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with "A" grades for Value and high Zacks Ranks are among the best value stocks available at any given moment.

One company to watch right now is DaVita (DVA - Free Report) . DVA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 14.49 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 21.15. DVA's Forward P/E has been as high as 15.73 and as low as 9.57, with a median of 13.14, all within the past year.

DVA is also sporting a PEG ratio of 1.19. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. DVA's industry currently sports an average PEG of 1.88. Over the past 52 weeks, DVA's PEG has been as high as 1.87 and as low as 0.56, with a median of 0.98.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. DVA has a P/S ratio of 0.97. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.33.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in DaVita's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, DVA looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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