Focus Partners Wealth Increases Stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Focus Partners Wealth increased its holdings in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 74.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 36,905 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,808 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth’s holdings in Welltower were worth $4,809,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in Welltower by 120.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 7,872 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in Welltower by 30.7% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 544,838 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $68,666,000 after acquiring an additional 128,090 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its stake in Welltower by 20.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,250 shares in the last quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC boosted its stake in Welltower by 17.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 285,015 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Welltower during the fourth quarter worth about $367,000. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on WELL shares. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Welltower in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $145.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Welltower from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $146.00 to $168.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Welltower from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $161.83.

Welltower Price Performance

NYSE WELL opened at $143.10 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $147.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $140.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $93.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.73, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 4.22 and a quick ratio of 4.22. Welltower Inc. has a 1-year low of $99.30 and a 1-year high of $158.55.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.40 billion. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.15% and a net margin of 11.91%. The company’s revenue was up 30.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.01 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Welltower’s payout ratio is 154.02%.

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.