Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $95.57.

A number of brokerages recently commented on WELL. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Welltower in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 target price for the company. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Welltower from $97.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 4th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Welltower from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Welltower from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Welltower in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price target for the company.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Welltower during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Welltower during the first quarter worth about $27,000. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its position in Welltower by 479.6% during the third quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 313 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 259 shares during the period. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Welltower by 117.8% during the third quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 342 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the period. Finally, Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Welltower during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Welltower Stock Performance

NYSE:WELL opened at $94.00 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $92.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $89.32. The company has a market cap of $55.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 146.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 3.22, a current ratio of 3.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Welltower has a 52 week low of $72.47 and a 52 week high of $94.63.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.79). The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. Welltower had a return on equity of 1.47% and a net margin of 5.12%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Welltower will post 4.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.60%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 381.26%.

About Welltower

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.