Warren Buffett Ups Stake in DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (DVA) to 18%

Warren Buffett is still bullish on DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) and a couple of days ago Berkshire Hathaway has raised its position in the company by around 1.2 million shares. In this way, Buffett has boosted his position, which is already the largest, to 37.2 million shares of Davita, equal to 18% of the common stock.

Warren Buffett portrait

The securities bought recently by Berkshire have been acquired in six transactions, the price  varying between $67.30 and $67.39 per share.

Berkshire has been raising its position in DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) for several months, raising the position consistently from around 5.4 million shares as reported holding at the end of 2011.

Since Mr. Buffett is well known for his commitment to long-term investments, DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) falls under this category, posting solid financial results and a stable stock price growth. The stock is trading over 25 times above its earnings and 16 times above forecasted earnings. The company posted EPS of $0.99 for the last quarter of 2013, slightly above the consensus estimate of $0.98 and higher than the year-ago result of $0.84. At the same time, for the full 2013, the company posted an EPS of $3.81, also higher on the year and beating the consensus estimate. Moreover, the company had a successful 2013, excelling in several areas of its activity, such as patient services or clinical performance.

Analysts also appreciate the company. Deutsche Bank recently upgraded the target price to $74 from the previous $72. JPMorgan Chase & Co. also raised the target price to $75 to $70, among others.

In addition to Berkshire Hathway, which is the largest shareholder of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA), Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital is another bullish shareholder, which upped its position by over 30% during the fourth quarter and currently holds almost 8.5 million shares.

Berkshire Hathaway holds only a small percentage of its equity portfolio invested in healthcare stocks, and DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) is the largest one of them, being also the tenth largest holding in its latest 13F. Another one is Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY), in which the fund owns almost 4.0 million shares.  At the same time, during the October-December period, Berkshire sold out its entire stake in GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK), previously holding around 346,000 shares.

Disclosure: none

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