Afya (NASDAQ:AFYA) Stock Rating Cut to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

Afya (NASDAQ:AFYA) was downgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday, Zacks reports.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on AFYA. Citigroup raised Afya from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $16.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Afya from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Afya from $19.00 to $17.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America raised shares of Afya from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $16.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Afya from an “underweight” rating to a “cautious” rating and set a $12.60 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.18.

Afya Trading Down 0.5%

NASDAQ AFYA opened at $10.50 on Tuesday. Afya has a fifty-two week low of $9.66 and a fifty-two week high of $16.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.20. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.14. The stock has a market cap of $984.06 million, a P/E ratio of 6.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.43.

Afya (NASDAQ:AFYA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 14th. The company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.03. Afya had a return on equity of 17.58% and a net margin of 20.55%. The firm had revenue of $187.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.62 million. On average, analysts forecast that Afya will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Afya

In related news, insider Santos Welder Ferreira sold 4,161 shares of Afya stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.30, for a total transaction of $55,341.30. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 35,000 shares in the company, valued at $465,500. The trade was a 10.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Afya

A hedge fund recently bought a new position in Afya stock. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Afya Limited (NASDAQ:AFYA) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 4,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,000. Institutional investors own 88.02% of the company’s stock.

About Afya

Afya Limited is a medical education and digital health company focused on Brazil. Through its educational platform, the company provides undergraduate medical education, medical residency preparation, specialization and continuing medical education programs, and other learning resources for students and physicians.

Afya also offers digital products and services intended to support healthcare professionals throughout their careers. These include clinical content, study tools, telemedicine and practice-management solutions, and subscription-based applications designed to assist physicians with education, clinical decision-making, and patient care.

The company has expanded through the development and acquisition of medical schools, education businesses, and health technology platforms serving different stages of the medical professional lifecycle.