DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) Short Interest Up 16.5% in August

DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,890,000 shares, an increase of 16.5% from the August 15th total of 2,480,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 642,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.5 days. Currently, 3.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Activity at DaVita

In other DaVita news, insider Kathleen Alyce Waters sold 9,794 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.81, for a total value of $997,127.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 81,297 shares in the company, valued at $8,276,847.57. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in shares of DaVita by 48.4% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 38,997 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,163,000 after purchasing an additional 12,726 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of DaVita by 73.8% in the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 45,299 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,674,000 after acquiring an additional 19,228 shares during the last quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA boosted its stake in shares of DaVita by 156.7% in the 1st quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 22,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,805,000 after purchasing an additional 13,583 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of DaVita by 55.1% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 445 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. increased its position in DaVita by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. now owns 18,249 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,363,000 after purchasing an additional 1,056 shares in the last quarter. 84.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on DVA. Truist Financial increased their target price on DaVita from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 13th. UBS Group raised DaVita from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $100.00 to $142.00 in a report on Monday, August 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of DaVita from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.29.

DaVita Stock Performance

NYSE:DVA opened at $99.78 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.13, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.25. DaVita has a fifty-two week low of $65.28 and a fifty-two week high of $116.97. The company has a market cap of $9.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a PEG ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $102.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $94.36.

DaVita (NYSE:DVA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.42. The business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.95 billion. DaVita had a net margin of 3.98% and a return on equity of 60.67%. DaVita’s revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that DaVita will post 7.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

DaVita Company Profile

DaVita Inc provides kidney dialysis services for patients suffering from chronic kidney failure in the United States. The company operates kidney dialysis centers and provides related lab services in outpatient dialysis centers. It also offers outpatient, hospital inpatient, and home-based hemodialysis services; operates clinical laboratories that provide routine laboratory tests for dialysis and other physician-prescribed laboratory tests for ESRD patients; and management and administrative services to outpatient dialysis centers.