DaVita Inc. 1st Quarter 2026 Results

DENVER, May 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA) announced financial and operating results for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.

"DaVita's foundation is clinical excellence, driven by operating rigor that produces durable results," said Javier Rodriguez, CEO of DaVita Inc. "We have consistently delivered exceptional clinical outcomes and strong financial performance, and this quarter is no exception."

Financial and operating highlights for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2026:

• Consolidated revenues were $3.416 billion.
• Operating income was $482 million.
• Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $2.87.
• Operating cash flow was $321 million and free cash flow was $140 million.
• Repurchased 3.0 million shares of the Company's common stock at an average price paid of $133.70 per share.

U.S. dialysis metrics:

Volume: Total U.S. dialysis treatments for the first quarter of 2026 were 7,029,525, or an average of 91,650 treatments per day, representing a per day increase of 0.05% compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. Normalized non-acquired treatment growth in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the first quarter of 2025 was 0.1%.

Primary drivers of the changes in the table above were as follows:

Revenue: The quarter change was primarily driven by the seasonal impact of co-insurance and deductibles and other normal fluctuations, partially offset by increases in average reimbursement rates, including Medicare base rate and other annual rate increases. The change from prior year quarter was driven by an increase in average reimbursement rates from normal annual increases, including Medicare base rate, and other normal fluctuations.

Patient care costs: The quarter change was primarily due to increased compensation expenses and insurance costs, partially offset by decreased health benefits expense and pharmaceutical costs. The change from prior year quarter was primarily driven by increased compensation expenses, insurance costs and medical supplies expense.

General and administrative: The quarter change was primarily due to decreased professional fees and health benefits expense, partially offset by increased compensation expenses. The change from prior year quarter was primarily driven by increases in IT-related costs and compensation expenses.

Certain items impacting the quarter:

Share repurchases. During the three months ended March 31, 2026, we repurchased 3.0 million shares for $403 million, at an average price paid of $133.70 per share.

Subsequent to March 31, 2026 through May 5, 2026, the Company has repurchased 2.0 million shares of our common stock for $302 million at an average price paid of $149.81 per share.

Financial and operating metrics:

Center activity: As of March 31, 2026, we provided dialysis services to a total of approximately 296,300 patients at 3,262 outpatient dialysis centers, of which 2,666 centers were located in the United States and 596 centers were located in 14 countries outside of the United States.

Integrated kidney care (IKC): As of March 31, 2026, we had approximately 62,600 patients in risk-based integrated care arrangements representing approximately $5.4 billion in annualized medical spend. We also had an additional 6,300 patients in other integrated care arrangements; we do not include the medical spend for these patients in this annualized medical spend estimate. For an additional description of these metrics, see footnote 5 in the "Supplemental Financial Data" table below.

Outlook:

The following forward-looking measures and the underlying assumptions involve significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including those described below, and actual results may vary materially from these forward-looking measures. We do not provide guidance for operating income or diluted net income from continuing operations per share attributable to DaVita Inc. or operating cash flow on a basis consistent with United States generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) nor a reconciliation of forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures on a forward-looking basis because we are unable to predict certain items contained in the GAAP measures without unreasonable efforts. These current non-GAAP financial measures do not include certain items, including foreign currency fluctuations, which may be significant. The guidance for our effective income tax rate on adjusted income attributable to DaVita Inc. also excludes the amount of third-party owners' income and related taxes attributable to non-tax paying entities.

The following table outlines normalized treatment days by quarter for 2025 and 2026. Normalized treatment days are adjusted for the mix of days of the week for each quarter and serve as a means to more readily compare calendar effects on each quarter's treatment volume.

We will be holding a conference call to discuss our results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026, on May 5, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. To join the conference call, please dial (877) 918-6630 from the U.S. or (517) 308-9042 from outside the U.S., and provide the operator the password "Earnings." This call is being webcast and can be accessed at the DaVita Investor Relations website investors.davita.com. A replay of the conference call will also be available at investors.davita.com.

Forward looking statements

DaVita Inc. and its representatives may from time to time make written and oral forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA), including statements in this release, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), reports to stockholders and in meetings with investors and analysts. All statements in this release, during the related presentation or other meetings, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and as such are intended to be covered by the safe harbor for "forward-looking statements" provided by the PSLRA. These forward-looking statements could include, among other things, statements about our balance sheet and liquidity, our expenses, revenues, billings and collections, patient census, the impact of the cybersecurity incident experienced by the Company in 2025 (cyber incident), the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and federal government policy changes or shutdowns, including with respect to federal funding and reimbursement rates of Medicare, Medicare Advantage (MA), Medicaid and other government programs, availability or cost of supplies, including without limitation the impact of evolving trade policies and tariffs and any reduction in clinical and other supplies due to any disruptions experienced by third party vendors, including with respect to our ability to provide home dialysis services, treatment volumes, mix expectation, such as the percentage or number of patients under commercial insurance, including potential impacts to such mix as a result of U.S. administration policies, current macroeconomic, marketplace and labor market conditions, and overall impact on our patients and teammates, as well as other statements regarding our outlook, future operations, financial condition and prospects, capital allocation plans, expenses, cost saving initiatives, other strategic initiatives, use of contract labor, government and commercial payment rates, expectations related to value-based care (VBC), integrated kidney care (IKC), MA plan enrollment and our international operations, expectations regarding increased competition and marketplace changes, including those related to new or potential entrants in the dialysis and pre-dialysis marketplace and the potential impact of innovative technologies, drugs, or other treatments on the dialysis industry, and expectations regarding our share repurchase program. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, statements including the words "expect," "intend," "will," "could," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "forecast," "guidance," "outlook," "goals," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on DaVita's current expectations and are based solely on information available as of the date of this release. DaVita undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of changed circumstances, new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. Actual future events and results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things:

• external conditions, including those related to general economic, political and global health conditions, including without limitation, the impact of global events and political or governmental volatility, including in the Middle East; the impact of the domestic political environment and related developments on the current healthcare marketplace, our patients and on our business; the impact of infectious diseases or other adverse conditions on our financial condition, the chronic kidney disease population and our patient population; supply chain challenges and disruptions, including without limitation, with respect to certain key services, critical clinical supplies and equipment we obtain from third parties, and including any impacts on our supply chain and cost of supplies as a result of global events, natural disasters or evolving trade policies, including tariffs; the impact on our patients and industry of continued increased competition from dialysis providers and others, including new or potential entrants in the dialysis and pre-dialysis marketplace; the impact of new or innovative technologies, drugs, or other treatments, including our ability to successfully implement new technologies, treatments or therapies in our business such as those related to middle molecule toxin clearance; elevated teammate turnover or labor costs; and our ability to respond to challenging U.S. and global economic and marketplace conditions, including, among other things, our ability to successfully identify cost saving opportunities;

• the concentration of profits generated by higher-paying commercial payor plans for which there is continued downward pressure on average realized payment rates; our ability to negotiate and maintain contracts with these payors on competitive terms or at all; a reduction in the number or percentage of our patients under commercial plans, including, without limitation, as a result of healthcare, immigration or other policies implemented by the U.S. administration, continuing legislative efforts to restrict or prohibit the use and/or availability of charitable premium assistance, as a result of payors implementing restrictive plan designs or resulting from negotiations with large commercial payors that we have in the past, and currently are, conducting on a concurrent basis;

• risks arising from laws, regulations or requirements applicable to us or changes thereto, including, without limitation, OBBBA and those related to trade policy, healthcare, privacy, antitrust matters, and acquisition, merger, joint venture or similar transactions and/or labor matters, and potential impacts of changes in interpretation or enforcement thereof or related litigation impacting, among other things, coverage or reimbursement rates for our services or the number of patients enrolled in or that select higher-paying commercial plans, and the risk that we make incorrect assumptions about how our patients will respond to any such developments;

• our ability to successfully implement our strategies with respect to IKC and VBC initiatives that may be impacted by, among other things, changes to the Comprehensive Kidney Care Contracting model and home based dialysis in the desired time frame and in a complex, dynamic and highly regulated environment;

• a reduction in government payment rates under the Medicare End Stage Renal Disease program, state Medicaid or other government-based programs and the impact of the MA benchmark structure and adjustment methodologies;

• our reliance on significant suppliers, service providers and other third party vendors to provide key support to our business operations and enable our provision of services to patients, including, among others, suppliers of certain pharmaceuticals, administrative or other services or critical clinical products; and risks resulting from a closure, reduction or other disruption in the services or products provided to us by such suppliers, service providers and third party vendors;

• our ability to successfully maintain, operate or upgrade our information systems or those of third-party service providers upon which we rely and our ability to successfully adopt or adapt to new technologies, treatments or therapies, including technologies that utilize artificial intelligence;

• legal and compliance risks, such as compliance with complex, and at times, evolving government regulations and requirements, and with additional laws that may apply to our operations as we expand geographically or enter into new lines of business;

• noncompliance by us or our business associates with any privacy or security laws or any security breach by us or a third party, such as the cyber incident, including, among other things, any such non-compliance or breach involving the misappropriation, loss or other unauthorized use or disclosure of confidential information;

• our ability to attract, retain and motivate teammates, including key leadership personnel, our ability to manage potential disruptions to our business and operations, including potential work stoppages, and our ability to manage operating cost increases or productivity decreases that may be related to political unrest, legislative or other changes, union organizing activities, or volatility and uncertainty in the current challenging and highly competitive labor market that has experienced an ongoing nationwide shortage of skilled clinical personnel, among other things;

• changes in practice patterns, pricing, or reimbursement and payment policies or processes related to pharmaceuticals, medical equipment or supplies, including with respect to oral phosphate binders, among other things;

• our ability to develop and maintain relationships with physicians and hospitals, changing affiliation models for physicians, and the emergence of new models of care or other initiatives that, among other things, may erode our patient base and impact reimbursement rates;

• our ability to complete and successfully integrate and operate acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures or other strategic transactions on terms favorable to us or at all; and our ability to continue to successfully expand our operations and services in markets outside the United States, or to businesses or products outside of dialysis services;

• the variability of our cash flows, including, without limitation, any extended billing or collections cycles that may be due to, among other things, defects or operational issues in our billing systems such as those experienced during the cyber incident, or defects or operational issues in the billing systems or services of third parties on which we rely; the risk that we may not be able to generate or access sufficient cash in the future to service our indebtedness or to fund our other liquidity needs;

• the effects on us or others of natural or other disasters, public health crises or severe adverse weather events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, fires or flooding;

• factors that may impact our ability to repurchase stock under our share repurchase program and the timing of any such stock repurchases, as well as any use by us of a considerable amount of available funds to repurchase stock;

• our goals and disclosures related to sustainability matters, including, among other things, evolving regulatory requirements affecting environmental, social and governance standards, measurements and reporting requirements; and

• the other risk factors, trends and uncertainties set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 and the risks and uncertainties discussed in any subsequent reports that we file or furnish with the SEC from time to time.

The financial information presented in this release is unaudited and is subject to change as a result of subsequent events or adjustments, if any, arising prior to the filing of the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.