Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Stock Holdings Raised by Bailard Inc.

Bailard Inc. raised its stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 21.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,920 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,044 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Welltower were worth $534,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Welltower by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 80,757,592 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,615,662,000 after buying an additional 2,156,673 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Welltower by 25.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 12,925,394 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,058,848,000 after buying an additional 2,596,718 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Welltower by 22.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,486,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $695,223,000 after buying an additional 1,581,084 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Welltower by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 7,986,481 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $720,141,000 after buying an additional 99,314 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Welltower by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,627,731 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $542,944,000 after buying an additional 48,051 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Welltower from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, March 29th. Scotiabank decreased their target price 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. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Welltower in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 target price for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Welltower in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.57.

Welltower Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:WELL opened at $94.34 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $92.06 and a 200-day moving average of $89.44. The firm has a market cap of $55.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 147.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.08. Welltower Inc. has a twelve month low of $72.47 and a twelve month high of $94.99. The company has a current ratio of 3.22, a quick ratio of 3.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.79). The company had revenue of $1.75 billion during 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 company’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.83 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.