DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (DVA): Did You See This Data?

DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately.

According to most market participants, hedge funds are perceived as slow, outdated investment tools of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation today, we look at the moguls of this club, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees most of the smart money’s total asset base, and by monitoring their top equity investments, we have found a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outclassed the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (explore the details and some picks here).

DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA)Equally as integral, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are many motivations for an executive to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, we’re going to take a look at the recent action regarding DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA).

What does the smart money think about DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA)?

At year’s end, a total of 31 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -9% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway had the most valuable position in DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA), worth close to $1.5041 billion, comprising 2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Pennant Capital Management, managed by Alan Fournier, which held a $302.2 million position; 6.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism include Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Due to the fact that DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) has witnessed declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there were a few hedge funds that decided to sell off their full holdings heading into 2013. At the top of the heap, SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors sold off the largest stake of all the hedgies we watch, worth about $10.4 million in stock.. Richard Schimel’s fund, Diamondback Capital, also dumped its stock, about $10.3 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds heading into 2013.

Insider trading activity in DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA)

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) has experienced 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 10 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA). These stocks are Hanger Inc (NYSE:HGR), Acadia Healthcare Company Inc (NASDAQ:ACHC), HEALTHSOUTH Corp. (NYSE:HLS), Mednax Inc. (NYSE:MD), and Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. (ADR) (NYSE:FMS). All of these stocks are in the specialized health services industry and their market caps match DVA’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Hanger Inc (NYSE:HGR) 9 0 14
Acadia Healthcare Company Inc (NASDAQ:ACHC) 17 1 16
HEALTHSOUTH Corp. (NYSE:HLS) 21 1 0
Mednax Inc. (NYSE:MD) 14 0 11
Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. (ADR) (NYSE:FMS) 6 0 0

With the results demonstrated by our tactics, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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