Is this the Best Time to Add DaVita (DVA) to Your Portfolio?

Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Global Fund” fourth-quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the Ariel Global fund returned +8.40% gross of fees (+8.18% net of fees), compared to the MSCI ACWI Index’s +11.03%, and the MSCI ACWI Value Index’s +9.17% gains. The fund appreciated +13.96% gross of fees (+13.06% net of fees) over the trailing year, underperforming the MSCI ACWI Index’s +22.20% return and ahead of the MSCI ACWI Value Index’s +11.81% return. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.

Ariel Global Fund featured stocks like DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) in the fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) provides kidney dialysis services. On March 22, 2024, DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) stock closed at $134.11 per share. One-month return of DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) was 8.47%, and its shares gained 75.68% of their value over the last 52 weeks. DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) has a market capitalization of $11.818 billion.

Ariel Global Fund stated the following regarding DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“We added positions in, leading providers of dialysis services, DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) and Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. is the worldwide leader in the treatment of renal disease, while Davita, Inc. administers its services to over 2,700 outpatient dialysis centers across 45+ states and operates over 350 outpatient dialysis centers in 12 total countries. The shares of each company came under pressure following the release of clinical data on the efficacy of glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP-1) weight-loss drugs and their potential to negatively impact the demand for dialysis, providing us with attractive entry points in both names. Even assuming high rates of both uptake and effectiveness, we believe the overall impact on dialysis volumes will be small in the near-to-medium term. We also think the cardio protective effects of the GLP-1 class may enable patients to live longer, thereby increasing the overall size of the end-stage renal disease incidence pool. We believed the market misunderstood the actual long-term clinical impact on dialysis and were able to purchase at attractive valuation levels.”

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DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) was held by 39 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 32 in the previous quarter, according to our database.

We discussed DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) in another article and shared top Stock picks in Warren Buffett 2024 portfolio. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.