Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Shares Purchased by West Family Investments Inc.

West Family Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 40.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,362 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 683 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Welltower were worth $298,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of WELL. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 470,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $60,228,000 after acquiring an additional 16,946 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Welltower by 29.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,684,446 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $215,659,000 after purchasing an additional 380,888 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew 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 valued at $1,696,000 after buying an additional 2,250 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Welltower during the 4th quarter worth approximately $367,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Welltower by 28.1% during the 4th 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 buying an additional 324,520 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on WELL. Wedbush upgraded Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $145.00 to $167.00 in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Welltower from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $148.42.

Welltower Price Performance

WELL stock opened at $147.22 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $138.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $132.63. The company has a quick ratio of 4.22, a current ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock has a market cap of $94.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 94.37, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.20. Welltower Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $87.87 and a fifty-two week high of $158.55.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a net margin of 11.91% and a return on equity of 3.15%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 171.79%.

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.