Legal & General Group Plc Boosts Stock Holdings in Welltower Inc. $WELL

Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 4.1% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,297,309 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 285,205 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Welltower were worth $1,121,815,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in WELL. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Welltower by 14.0% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 21,289,684 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,261,792,000 after purchasing an additional 2,614,562 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Welltower by 5.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,012,454 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,303,484,000 after buying an additional 723,887 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Welltower by 41.6% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,923,852 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,367,226,000 after buying an additional 2,622,384 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Welltower by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,467,221 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,297,263,000 after buying an additional 36,725 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in Welltower by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 8,164,840 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,250,935,000 after acquiring an additional 532,135 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Welltower in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Welltower from $182.00 to $214.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. UBS Group set a $203.00 price objective on shares of Welltower in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Welltower in a report on Wednesday. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Welltower from $150.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Welltower has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $192.73.

Welltower Trading Up 0.3%

WELL stock opened at $197.54 on Friday. Welltower Inc. has a twelve month low of $123.11 and a twelve month high of $201.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $135.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 136.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 4.19, a current ratio of 5.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $178.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $164.83.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.04. Welltower had a net margin of 9.69% and a return on equity of 2.71%. The firm had revenue of $2.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.11 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Welltower has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.240-5.300 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 11th were given a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 10th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is 204.14%.

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.