&Partners Purchases New Holdings in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

&Partners purchased a new stake in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,671 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $250,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Welltower in the fourth quarter worth $2,453,039,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Welltower by 6.4% in 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 buying an additional 5,173,079 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in Welltower by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,132,262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,085,836,000 after buying an additional 1,361,150 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its position in Welltower by 147.7% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,072,283 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $96,688,000 after buying an additional 639,355 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Welltower by 1,412.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 594,677 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $54,062,000 after buying an additional 555,353 shares during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on WELL. BNP Paribas began coverage on Welltower in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 target price for the company. Mizuho raised their target price on Welltower from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. StockNews.com raised Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Welltower from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on Welltower from $96.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.07.

Welltower Price Performance

NYSE:WELL opened at $102.32 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 126.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.16. Welltower Inc. has a 52-week low of $75.86 and a 52-week high of $105.69. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $99.10 and a 200 day moving average of $93.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 3.83 and a current ratio of 3.83.

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

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 301.23%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Welltower news, Director Kenneth J. Bacon sold 1,800 shares of Welltower stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,514,903.89. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Welltower Company Profile

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.