IFM Investors Pty Ltd Raises Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 264,368 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,797 shares during the quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd’s holdings in Welltower were worth $33,847,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WELL. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Welltower by 26.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 6,104,064 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP bought a new position in Welltower in the first quarter worth approximately $309,917,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Welltower by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,187,884 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,333,716,000 after purchasing an additional 3,257,213 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Welltower during the 2nd quarter worth $254,977,000. Finally, Centersquare Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Welltower by 19.0% in 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 buying an additional 849,898 shares during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on WELL. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Welltower from $121.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. StockNews.com lowered Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Welltower from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Welltower from $103.00 to $107.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $135.00 target price (up previously from $134.00) on shares of Welltower in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Welltower presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $115.38.

Welltower Stock Performance

WELL traded down $0.05 on Thursday, reaching $131.72. The company had a trading volume of 293,188 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,673,717. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $125.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $110.40. The company has a quick ratio of 4.07, a current ratio of 4.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.76 billion, a PE ratio of 162.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.21. Welltower Inc. has a 1 year low of $80.80 and a 1 year high of $132.54.

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

Welltower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. This is an increase from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.03%. Welltower’s payout ratio is 330.86%.

Welltower Company Profile

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.