DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,040,000 shares, a growth of 6.9% from the November 30th total of 3,780,000 shares. Approximately 5.2% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 770,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.2 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DVA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price target on DaVita from $150.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial boosted their target price on DaVita from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $161.80.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On DaVita

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DVA. Harvard Management Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of DaVita in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $55,115,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of DaVita by 659.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 177,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,082,000 after buying an additional 154,061 shares during the period. Glenmede Trust Co. NA grew its holdings in shares of DaVita by 731.6% during the third quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 123,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,207,000 after buying an additional 108,446 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in DaVita by 17.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 609,076 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,846,000 after buying an additional 92,014 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in DaVita in the 2nd quarter worth about $9,615,000. 90.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

DaVita Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DVA opened at $149.55 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $155.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $151.51. The company has a market capitalization of $12.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.13, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 15.78. DaVita has a twelve month low of $103.40 and a twelve month high of $169.51.

DaVita (NYSE:DVA) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $2.59 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by ($0.17). The business had revenue of $3.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. DaVita had a return on equity of 88.18% and a net margin of 6.53%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.85 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that DaVita will post 9.71 earnings per share 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.