DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) Short Interest Update

DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,900,000 shares, a drop of 8.9% from the October 31st total of 4,280,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 814,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.8 days. Approximately 5.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on DVA shares. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of DaVita from $150.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of DaVita from $169.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of DaVita from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of DaVita from $139.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, DaVita has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $161.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Javier Rodriguez sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.05, for a total value of $8,252,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 837,835 shares in the company, valued at approximately $138,284,666.75. This trade represents a 5.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of DaVita

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in DaVita by 29.6% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 50,096 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,942,000 after purchasing an additional 11,454 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank grew its stake in DaVita by 41.4% in the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 34,431 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,753,000 after purchasing an additional 10,074 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in DaVita in the third quarter valued at about $669,000. Atom Investors LP purchased a new position in DaVita in the third quarter valued at about $4,094,000. Finally, MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new position in DaVita in the second quarter valued at about $582,000. 90.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

DaVita Price Performance

Shares of DVA stock traded up $0.26 on Tuesday, reaching $164.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 523,448 shares, compared to its average volume of 819,248. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $158.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $149.67. DaVita has a 1 year low of $103.40 and a 1 year high of $169.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 15.78. The company has a market capitalization of $13.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.90.

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

About DaVita

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.