Southland Equity Partners LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Southland Equity Partners LLC lifted its position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 18.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,368 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 692 shares during the quarter. Southland Equity Partners LLC’s holdings in Welltower were worth $550,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WELL. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in 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 worth $60,228,000 after purchasing an additional 16,946 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co boosted its stake in shares of Welltower by 93.8% in the 3rd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 18,474 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,365,000 after buying an additional 8,940 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Welltower by 29.2% in 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 during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Welltower by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after acquiring an additional 2,250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Welltower by 28.1% during 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WELL. Raymond James upped their price objective on Welltower from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective (up previously from $134.00) on shares of Welltower in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Welltower from $133.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $127.63.

Welltower Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:WELL opened at $132.31 on Friday. Welltower Inc. has a 1 year low of $85.40 and a 1 year high of $140.75. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $130.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $124.95. 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 company has a market cap of $82.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.22.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by ($0.31). The company had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.95 billion. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.20% and a net margin of 12.22%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.92 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Welltower Inc. will post 4.3 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 13th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 176.32%.

Welltower 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.