Wedbush Upgrades Welltower (NYSE:WELL) to Outperform

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) was upgraded by research analysts at Wedbush from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report issued on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage presently has a $167.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $145.00. Wedbush’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 10.29% from the stock’s current price.

WELL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Welltower from $190.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Welltower from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $138.58.

Welltower Stock Up 3.4 %

NYSE WELL opened at $151.42 on Friday. Welltower has a fifty-two week low of $87.87 and a fifty-two week high of $151.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $94.29 billion, a PE ratio of 99.62, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 4.10 and a quick ratio of 4.10. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $130.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $128.40.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.20% and a net margin of 12.22%. Equities analysts expect that Welltower will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Welltower

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Welltower by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,295,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,388,151,000 after acquiring an additional 2,612,044 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of Welltower by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 37,096,408 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,674,826,000 after buying an additional 318,496 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Welltower in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,943,892,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Welltower by 10.6% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,685,844 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,392,349,000 after buying an additional 1,797,330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,782,795 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,989,106,000 after acquiring an additional 1,354,231 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Welltower Company Profile

Welltower Inc (NYSE:WELL), a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) and S&P 500 company headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, is driving the transformation of health care infrastructure. Welltower invests with leading seniors housing operators, post-acute providers and health systems to fund the real estate infrastructure needed to scale innovative care delivery models and improve people’s wellness and overall health care experience.