DaVita misses quarterly profit estimates on rising costs, lower volumes

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(Reuters) -DaVita missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit on Wednesday, as the kidney dialysis provider grappled with rising patient care costs and declining treatment volumes.

The Colorado-based company, which offers dialysis services through outpatient clinics and at-home care across the United States, said average daily U.S. dialysis treatments fell 0.5% from the previous quarter to 91,680. Compared with a year earlier, normalized non-acquired treatment growth declined 0.6%.

Patient care costs per treatment rose nearly 6% year-over-year to $271.23 for the nine-month period, driven by pharmaceutical and compensation costs.

General and administrative expenses also rose to $322 million in the quarter, up $10 million from the prior quarter, primarily due to IT-related costs.

DaVita is still dealing with the fallout from a ransomware attack in April that disrupted parts of its operations and exposed the personal data of 2.7 million people.

The company incurred $11.7 million in costs during the quarter to remediate the incident and restore systems, it said.

For the quarter ended September 30, DaVita reported adjusted profit of $2.51 per share, below analysts’ average estimate of $3.23, according to LSEG data.

Revenue came in at $3.42 billion, just shy of expectations of $3.43 billion.

The company raised the lower end of its full-year profit forecast. The company now expects 2025 adjusted per-share profit between $10.35 and $11.15, compared with its previous expectation of $10.20 to $11.30.

Shares of the company were down about 2% in extended trading.

(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)