Afya (NASDAQ:AFYA) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Afya (NASDAQ:AFYA) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other brokerages have also commented on AFYA. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Afya from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $19.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Afya from $17.50 to $19.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.60.

Afya Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:AFYA opened at $18.11 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $18.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.17. The stock has a market cap of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.60. Afya has a fifty-two week low of $14.52 and a fifty-two week high of $19.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Doma Perpetual Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Afya by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. Doma Perpetual Capital Management LLC now owns 592,220 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,619,000 after buying an additional 25,111 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Afya by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 412,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,543,000 after purchasing an additional 50,700 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Afya by 54.3% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 97,313 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,545,000 after purchasing an additional 34,246 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Afya by 32.9% during the 4th quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 82,817 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,315,000 after purchasing an additional 20,498 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in shares of Afya by 27.2% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 78,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,248,000 after purchasing an additional 16,800 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.02% of the company’s stock.

About Afya

Afya Limited, through its subsidiaries, operates as a medical education group in Brazil. The company operates through three segments: Undergrad, Continuing Education, and Digital Services. It offers educational products and services, including medical schools, medical residency preparatory courses, graduate courses, and other programs to lifelong medical learners enrolled across its distribution network, as well as to third-party medical schools.