Naviter Wealth LLC Buys 4,585 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Naviter Wealth LLC lifted its position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 18.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 29,451 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 4,585 shares during the quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC’s holdings in Welltower were worth $2,656,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 2,596,718 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 worth $6,615,662,000 after acquiring an additional 2,156,673 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Welltower by 22.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,486,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $695,223,000 after purchasing an additional 1,581,084 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Welltower by 1,412.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 594,677 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $54,062,000 after purchasing an additional 555,353 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 62.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,367,437 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $112,020,000 after purchasing an additional 526,386 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WELL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Welltower from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Welltower from $97.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com cut Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Welltower in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Welltower in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.57.

Welltower Price Performance

NYSE:WELL traded up $1.02 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $95.36. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 810,639 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,520,043. The company has a market capitalization of $56.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 148.69, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 3.22 and a quick ratio of 3.22. Welltower Inc. has a twelve month low of $72.47 and a twelve month high of $95.60. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $92.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $89.47.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its 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). Welltower had a net margin of 5.12% and a return on equity of 1.47%. The company had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.83 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 381.25%.

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.