Berkshire Hathaway Raises Stake in DaVita to Over 10 Percent of Kidney Dialysis Firm

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing today, Berkshire Hathaway revealed that it increased its holding in DaVita (DVA) by 900,000 shares to 10.2 million shares during the quarter ending September 30.  This represented an additional investment of  $93 million at today’s closing price of $103.44.  Berkshire’s entire stake is currently valued at $1.1 billion and represents about 10.8% of DaVita’s common shares.  Berkshire took its initial stake during the fourth quarter of 2011 and has been adding substantially to its position in each of the first three quarters of 2012.  Today’s filing indicated that Berkshire added 282,000 shares from September 26 – 28 at prices as high as $103.72 per share.

This investment was likely made by Ted Weschler who joined Berkshire in early 2012.  Prior to joining Berkshire, Mr. Weschler’s firm, Peninsula Capital Adviors, LLC  held positions as large as 6 million shares of DaVita dating back to at least September 30, 2003.  (SEC data are not available prior to that date.)  DaVita was consistently one of Ted Weschler’s top three investments at Peninsula Capital over this time period.