Handelsbanken Fonder AB Raises Holdings in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 317,018 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,369 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB owned 0.05% of Welltower worth $40,588,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WELL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Welltower by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,187,884 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,333,716,000 after purchasing an additional 3,257,213 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Welltower by 26.4% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 29,236,326 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,731,842,000 after acquiring an additional 6,104,064 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Welltower by 0.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,814,741 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $814,678,000 after acquiring an additional 62,942 shares during the last quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC increased its position in Welltower by 19.0% during the first quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 5,329,248 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $507,771,000 after acquiring an additional 849,898 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Welltower by 12.4% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 4,433,816 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $414,229,000 after acquiring an additional 489,533 shares during the period. 94.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Welltower from $101.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Welltower from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Welltower from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Welltower from $115.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Welltower from $103.00 to $107.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Welltower presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $115.38.

Welltower Price Performance

WELL traded down $0.90 on Friday, hitting $125.56. 1,966,641 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,728,029. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $121.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $107.13. The company has a current ratio of 4.07, a quick ratio of 4.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. Welltower Inc. has a one year low of $80.55 and a one year high of $131.31. The firm has a market cap of $75.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 155.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.21.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.08. Welltower had a net margin of 8.36% and a return on equity of 2.21%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.19 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is a positive change from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.13%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 330.86%.

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.