Dialysis provider DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) reported Q1 CY2026 results exceeding the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 6% year on year to $3.42 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $2.87 per share was 23.2% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
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DaVita (DVA) Q1 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $3.42 billion vs analyst estimates of $3.35 billion (6% year-on-year growth, 2.1% beat)
- Adjusted EPS: $2.87 vs analyst estimates of $2.33 (23.2% beat)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $687.9 million vs analyst estimates of $610.7 million (20.1% margin, 12.6% beat)
- Management raised its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $14.65 at the midpoint, a 2.4% increase
- Operating Margin: 14.1%, in line with the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow Margin: 4.1%, up from 1.1% in the same quarter last year
- Sales Volumes were flat year on year (-1.6% in the same quarter last year)
- Market Capitalization: $10.16 billion
"DaVita's foundation is clinical excellence, driven by operating rigor that produces durable results," said Javier Rodriguez, CEO of DaVita Inc.
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 can indicate its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul. Unfortunately, DaVita’s 3.7% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was tepid. This was below our standard for the healthcare sector and is a rough starting point for our analysis.
Long-term growth is the most important, but within healthcare, a half-decade historical view may miss new innovations or demand cycles. DaVita’s annualized revenue growth of 5.9% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, which is encouraging. 
We can better understand the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its number of treatments, which reached 7.03 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 6%, and its $3.42 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 2.1%.
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 doesn't excite us and implies its products and services will face some demand challenges.
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Adjusted Operating Margin
Adjusted operating margin is one of the best measures of profitability because it tells us how much money a company takes home after subtracting all core expenses, like marketing and R&D. It also removes various one-time costs to paint a better picture of normalized profits.
DaVita’s adjusted operating margin has more or less stayed the same over the last 12 months , averaging 14.5% over the last five years. This profitability was higher than the broader healthcare sector, showing it did a decent job managing its expenses.
Analyzing the trend in its profitability, DaVita’s adjusted operating margin might fluctuated slightly but has generally stayed the same over the last five years. This raises questions about the company’s expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability.
This quarter, DaVita generated an adjusted operating margin profit margin of 14.9%, up 1.3 percentage points year on year. This increase was a welcome development and shows it was more efficient.
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 9.3% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 3.7% annualized revenue growth. However, this alone doesn’t tell us much about its business quality because its adjusted operating margin didn’t improve.
Diving into the nuances of DaVita’s earnings can give us a better understanding of its performance. A five-year view shows that DaVita has repurchased its stock, shrinking its share count by 39.5%. This tells us its EPS outperformed its revenue not because of increased operational efficiency but financial engineering, as buybacks boost per share earnings. 
In Q1, DaVita reported adjusted EPS of $2.87, up from $2 in the same quarter last year. This print easily cleared analysts’ estimates, and shareholders should be content with the results. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects DaVita’s full-year EPS of $11.73 to grow 23.9%.
Key Takeaways from DaVita’s Q1 Results
It was good to see DaVita beat analysts’ EPS expectations this quarter. We were also glad its full-year EPS guidance outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Zooming out, we think this was a solid print. The stock traded up 3.3% to $162.25 immediately following the results.
Indeed, DaVita had a rock-solid quarterly earnings result, but is this stock a good investment here? What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
