Nomura Holdings Inc. Takes $8.86 Million Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 98,221 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $8,857,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in Welltower during the 4th quarter worth approximately $782,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new stake in shares of Welltower during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $344,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Welltower by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 85,930,671 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,748,369,000 after purchasing an additional 5,173,079 shares during the last quarter. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Welltower in the fourth quarter worth $100,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Welltower during the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. 94.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Welltower

In related news, Director Kenneth J. Bacon sold 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.91, for a total transaction of $187,038.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,514,903.89. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WELL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Welltower in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Welltower from $96.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Welltower from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on Welltower from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Welltower presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $98.07.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of WELL opened at $103.94 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 3.83 and a current ratio of 3.83. The firm has a market cap of $62.15 billion, a PE ratio of 128.32, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.16. Welltower Inc. has a twelve month low of $75.86 and a twelve month high of $105.69. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $98.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $93.26.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.72). Welltower had a net margin of 6.37% and a return on equity of 1.77%. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.81 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.85 earnings per share. Welltower’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Welltower Inc. will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th were paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is 301.23%.

About Welltower

Welltower Inc (NYSE:WELL), a 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 and infrastructure needed to scale innovative care delivery models and improve people's wellness and overall health care experience.