Short Interest in DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) Grows By 6.0%

DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) saw a significant increase in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,280,000 shares, an increase of 6.0% from the July 15th total of 4,980,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 824,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.4 days. Approximately 6.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com cut DaVita from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 8th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on DaVita from $139.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of DaVita from $133.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of DaVita from $169.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of DaVita from $139.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $154.00.

Insider Activity at DaVita

In other news, insider Kathleen Alyce Waters sold 7,857 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.21, for a total value of $1,148,771.97. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 83,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,137,038.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On DaVita

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. 8 Knots Management LLC purchased a new stake in DaVita in the fourth quarter worth about $89,504,000. Doma Perpetual Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of DaVita during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,076,000. Harvard Management Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in DaVita in the second quarter worth $55,115,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in DaVita in the fourth quarter worth $36,626,000. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in DaVita by 63.9% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 548,642 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,476,000 after buying an additional 213,992 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.12% of the company’s stock.

DaVita Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE DVA traded up $0.34 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $150.30. The stock had a trading volume of 680,482 shares, compared to its average volume of 720,697. The firm has a market cap of $13.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.16. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $140.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $135.14. DaVita has a 1 year low of $71.51 and a 1 year high of $151.55.

DaVita (NYSE:DVA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.47 by $0.12. DaVita had a net margin of 6.86% and a return on equity of 77.00%. The company had revenue of $3.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.08 earnings per share. DaVita’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that DaVita will post 9.9 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.