Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Shares Bought by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co lifted its stake in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 10.8% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 23,138 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,250 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co’s holdings in Welltower were worth $2,412,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WELL. Jump Financial LLC lifted its stake in Welltower by 131.3% in the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 7,997 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $721,000 after acquiring an additional 4,540 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in shares of Welltower by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 51,631 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,656,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG lifted its position in shares of Welltower by 147.7% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,072,283 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $96,688,000 after purchasing an additional 639,355 shares during the last quarter. Sachetta LLC acquired a new position in shares of Welltower during the fourth quarter worth $71,000. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Welltower by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 33,188 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,993,000 after buying an additional 1,025 shares during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WELL. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Welltower from $116.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wedbush increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Welltower from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Welltower from $115.00 to $137.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Welltower from $103.00 to $107.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.38.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WELL opened at $127.44 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 4.07 and a current ratio of 4.07. Welltower Inc. has a one year low of $78.38 and a one year high of $131.31. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $116.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $104.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $76.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 157.33, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.21.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. 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. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.