Wedbush Securities Inc. Grows Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Wedbush Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 12.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,287 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 247 shares during the quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Welltower were worth $288,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Welltower by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,295,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,388,151,000 after buying an additional 2,612,044 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Welltower during the fourth quarter worth $3,943,892,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Welltower by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,558,841 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,707,570,000 after purchasing an additional 644,494 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Welltower by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,884,674 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $489,585,000 after purchasing an additional 117,170 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in shares of Welltower by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 3,773,827 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $477,314,000 after purchasing an additional 589,255 shares in the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on WELL shares. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Welltower from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Welltower from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $146.00 to $168.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Welltower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $158.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Welltower from $141.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $156.46.

Welltower Stock Up 3.8 %

WELL stock opened at $141.61 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 4.22 and a quick ratio of 4.22. Welltower Inc. has a 1-year low of $87.87 and a 1-year high of $158.55. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $147.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $136.71. The firm has a market cap of $91.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.78, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.93.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio 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.