DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) Short Interest Up 6.9% in December

DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,040,000 shares, an increase of 6.9% from the November 30th total of 3,780,000 shares. Currently, 5.2% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 770,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.2 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Institutional Trading of DaVita

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in DaVita by 134.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 54,901 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,885,000 after buying an additional 31,502 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of DaVita by 659.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 177,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,082,000 after acquiring an additional 154,061 shares during the period. Atom Investors LP acquired a new stake in shares of DaVita in the 3rd quarter worth about $4,094,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in DaVita in the 3rd quarter valued at about $726,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in DaVita in the 3rd quarter worth about $669,000. Institutional investors own 90.12% of the company’s stock.

DaVita Stock Performance

DaVita stock opened at $149.55 on Thursday. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $155.42 and a 200-day moving average of $151.51. DaVita has a 52 week low of $103.40 and a 52 week high of $169.51. The stock has a market cap of $12.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.90.

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