Bank of America Issues Positive Forecast for Welltower (NYSE:WELL) Stock Price

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) had its price objective upped by equities researchers at Bank of America from $221.00 to $242.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective suggests a potential upside of 60.75% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. Scotiabank increased their target price on Welltower from $142.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Wedbush upgraded shares of Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $145.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $140.19.

Welltower Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of WELL stock traded up $0.57 on Tuesday, hitting $150.54. The stock had a trading volume of 1,415,827 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,544,881. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $132.15 and its 200-day moving average is $129.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $93.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 99.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.23. Welltower has a 52-week low of $87.87 and a 52-week high of $152.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 4.10 and a current ratio of 4.10.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share 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%. As a group, research analysts expect that Welltower will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WELL. Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its stake in shares of Welltower by 3.7% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 470,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $60,228,000 after purchasing an additional 16,946 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Welltower by 29.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,684,446 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $215,659,000 after buying an additional 380,888 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Welltower by 20.1% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,696,000 after acquiring an additional 2,250 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 28.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,477,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $185,649,000 after acquiring an additional 324,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Welltower by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 20,931 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,638,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

About Welltower

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.