Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $113.38.

WELL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Welltower from $101.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Wolfe Research upgraded Welltower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Welltower from $115.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Welltower from $121.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com raised Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 3rd.

Institutional Trading of Welltower

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WELL. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Welltower during the 4th quarter worth $8,857,000. Connors Investor Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Welltower by 10.6% during the 1st quarter. Connors Investor Services Inc. now owns 117,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,999,000 after acquiring an additional 11,238 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 88.1% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,118,333 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $104,072,000 after purchasing an additional 523,656 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its stake in Welltower by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 1,019,796 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $91,955,000 after purchasing an additional 72,968 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Centersquare Investment Management LLC grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 849,898 shares during the period. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Welltower Stock Performance

Shares of Welltower stock opened at $127.20 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $119.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.59. Welltower has a 1-year low of $78.38 and a 1-year high of $131.31. The company has a current ratio of 4.07, a quick ratio of 4.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a market cap of $76.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 156.65, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.21.

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

Welltower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This is an increase from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Welltower’s payout ratio is presently 330.86%.

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.