bLong Financial LLC Buys New Shares in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

bLong Financial LLC purchased a new position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 2,450 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $309,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its holdings in Welltower by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 470,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $60,228,000 after acquiring an additional 16,946 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of 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 period. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Welltower by 28.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,477,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $185,649,000 after purchasing an additional 324,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Welltower by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 20,931 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,638,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on WELL. Wedbush raised shares of Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $145.00 to $167.00 in a report on Friday. Mizuho upped their price objective on Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Welltower from $190.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Welltower from $142.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $138.58.

Welltower Trading Down 0.9 %

WELL stock opened at $150.03 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $131.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $128.83. Welltower Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $87.87 and a fifty-two week high of $151.96. The firm has a market cap of $96.21 billion, a PE ratio of 98.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 4.10 and a current ratio of 4.10.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 3.20%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. Welltower’s payout ratio is currently 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.