In November, short interest in DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA) dropped precipitously. As of November 15, there were 3,090,000 shares totaling short interest, a 15.1% decrease from 3,640,000 shares as of October 31. Currently, short sales of approximately 3.5% of the stock are occurring. Based on an average daily trading volume of 836,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is 3.7 days.
Institutional investors’ stock holdings have recently increased or decreased. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co. increased its first-quarter investment in DaVita by $1,162,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its ownership of DaVita by 11.5% during the second quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 14,293 shares of the company’s stock, worth $114,000, after acquiring an additional 1,478 shares over the last three months. During the first quarter, the Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund added around $206,000 to its stake in DaVita. FORA Capital LLC purchased a new position in DaVita for around $251,000 during the first quarter.
Last but not least, ING Group NV boosted its ownership of DaVita by 16.5% during the second quarter. ING Group NV now directly owns 11,393 shares of the company’s stock, worth $911,000, after acquiring an additional 1,615 shares in the last quarter. Institutions presently hold 88.47% of the stock.
In other news, John M. Nehra, a director, bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock on November 1. A total of $355,700.00, or an average price of $71.14 per share, was paid for the shares. Following the purchase, the director will be the owner of 15,000 company shares, valued at $1,067,100. The acquisition was made public through an online legal document submitted to the SEC. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.
The business recently received comments from several research analysts. Barclays reduced their price target for DaVita from $103.00 to $81.00 in a research note released on Monday, October 31, and rated the stock as “equal weight.” In a research note released on November 1, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut its price objective for DaVita’s shares from $97.00 to $72.00 and changed the company’s recommendation from “buy” to “hold.” TheStreet downgraded DaVita’s rating in a research study from “b-” to “c+” on Tuesday, November 1. In a research note published on Tuesday, August 9, Cowen lowered their target price for DaVita to $95.00. StockNews.com changed DaVita’s recommendation from “buy” to “hold” in a report released on Thursday. Shares of the company have received a hold rating from five analysts, while one has advised selling the stock. DaVita has an average target price of $81.17 and a consensus rating of “Hold,” according to data from Bloomberg.com.
At noon on Friday, NYSE: DVA increased $1.11 to $74.34. The stock’s daily average turnover is 757,762 shares; this day’s turnover was 463,247 shares. The stock has a $6.70 billion market value, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40, and a beta of 0.99. The company’s debt-to-equity ratio, quick ratio, and current ratio are 12.63, 1.22, and 1.26. The 50-day and 200-day moving averages of the company’s stock are $79.65 and $85.56, respectively. DaVita has had highs and lows for the past year of $124.81 and $65.28, respectively.
On Friday, October 28, DaVita (NYSE: DVA) issued its quarterly results. The company’s quarterly earnings of $1.45 per share were $0.20 below the $1.65 average expected. The company’s sales for the quarter came in at $2.95 billion, as opposed to the average expectation of $2.98 billion. DaVita had an equity return of 85.6% and a net margin of 5.84%. The company’s revenue for the quarter climbed 4% over the prior year. For the same period a year ago, the company’s earnings per share were $2.36. Analysts predict that DaVita will generate $6.31 in earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
