DaVita (NYSE:DVA) Beats Expectations in Strong Q4 CY2025, Stock Soars

Dialysis provider DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) beat Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q4 CY2025, with sales up 9.9% year on year to $3.62 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $3.40 per share was 6.5% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

With over 2,600 dialysis centers across the United States and a presence in 13 countries, DaVita (NYSE:DVA) operates a network of dialysis centers providing treatment and care for patients with chronic kidney disease and end-stage kidney disease.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. Over the last five years, DaVita grew its sales at a tepid 3.4% compounded annual growth rate. This fell short of our benchmark for the healthcare sector and is a rough starting point for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within healthcare, a half-decade historical view may miss recent innovations or disruptive industry trends. DaVita’s annualized revenue growth of 6% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, but we were still disappointed by the results.

We can better understand the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its number of treatments, which reached 7.26 million in the latest quarter. Over the last two years, DaVita’s treatments were flat. Because this number is lower than its revenue growth, we can see the company benefited from price increases.

This quarter, DaVita reported year-on-year revenue growth of 9.9%, and its $3.62 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 3.2%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 1.9% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last two years. This projection is underwhelming and indicates its products and services will face some demand challenges.

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Operating Margin

DaVita’s operating margin might fluctuated slightly over the last 12 months but has remained more or less the same, averaging 14.4% over the last five years. This profitability was higher than the broader healthcare sector, showing it did a decent job managing its expenses.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, DaVita’s operating margin of 15% for the trailing 12 months may be around the same as five years ago, but it has increased by 1.8 percentage points over the last two years.

This quarter, DaVita generated an operating margin profit margin of 15.5%, down 1.7 percentage points year on year. This reduction is quite minuscule and indicates the company’s overall cost structure has been relatively stable.

Earnings Per Share

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

DaVita’s EPS grew at a solid 8.4% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 3.4% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

We can take a deeper look into DaVita’s earnings quality to better understand the drivers of its performance. A five-year view shows that DaVita has repurchased its stock, shrinking its share count by 38.5%. This tells us its EPS outperformed its revenue not because of increased operational efficiency but financial engineering, as buybacks boost per share earnings.

In Q4, DaVita reported adjusted EPS of $3.40, up from $2.24 in the same quarter last year. This print beat analysts’ estimates by 6.5%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects DaVita’s full-year EPS of $10.86 to grow 19.4%.

Key Takeaways from DaVita’s Q4 Results

We were impressed by how significantly DaVita blew past analysts’ full-year EPS guidance expectations this quarter. We were also glad its revenue outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Zooming out, we think this was a solid print. The stock traded up 8.7% to $118.50 immediately after reporting.

Sure, DaVita had a solid quarter, but if we look at the bigger picture, is this stock a buy? When making that decision, it’s important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).