DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DVA has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of DaVita from $133.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 6th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on DaVita from $139.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group increased their price target on DaVita from $169.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Bank of America boosted their price target on DaVita from $139.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of DaVita from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $154.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at DaVita

In other DaVita news, insider Kathleen Alyce Waters sold 7,857 shares of DaVita stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $12,137,038.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of DaVita

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in DaVita by 58.6% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 211 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new stake in DaVita in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in DaVita in the 2nd quarter worth $43,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in DaVita by 90.6% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 326 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the period. Finally, Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in DaVita during the second quarter valued at $48,000. 90.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

DaVita Stock Performance

DaVita stock traded up $0.34 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $150.30. 680,482 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 720,697. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 1.12. DaVita has a 1 year low of $71.51 and a 1 year high of $151.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.08, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $140.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.14.

DaVita (NYSE:DVA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.47 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $3.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.15 billion. DaVita had a net margin of 6.86% and a return on equity of 77.00%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.08 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect 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.