Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) has been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the fourteen analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have issued a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $150.19.

WELL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Welltower from $140.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Welltower from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price objective on Welltower from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its position in Welltower by 3.7% in 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. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. boosted its position in Welltower by 120.3% in the fourth quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 14,417 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,817,000 after purchasing an additional 7,872 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its position in Welltower by 29.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,684,446 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $215,659,000 after purchasing an additional 380,888 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its position in 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 worth $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC boosted its position in Welltower by 17.3% in the fourth quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 1,936,954 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $244,114,000 after purchasing an additional 285,015 shares during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Welltower Stock Performance

NYSE:WELL opened at $147.85 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a current ratio of 4.22. The firm has a market cap of $94.81 billion, a PE ratio of 94.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $141.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $133.82. Welltower has a fifty-two week low of $87.87 and a fifty-two week high of $158.55.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.15% and a net margin of 11.91%. Equities research analysts predict that Welltower will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.81%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.