Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Announces $0.61 Quarterly Dividend

Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 29th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.61 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, May 22nd. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 10th.

Welltower has decreased its dividend by an average of 3.3% per year over the last three years. Welltower has a dividend payout ratio of 146.1% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Welltower to earn $4.54 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 53.7%.

Welltower Stock Up 0.7 %

NYSE:WELL opened at $97.46 on Wednesday. Welltower has a 52 week low of $72.47 and a 52 week high of $98.19. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $92.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $90.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $58.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 3.83, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.94 by ($0.72). Welltower had a return on equity of 1.77% and a net margin of 6.37%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.81 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.85 EPS. Welltower’s revenue was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Welltower will post 4.06 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WELL. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of Welltower from $97.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Welltower in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price target on the stock. BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Welltower in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Five research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.57.

Welltower Company Profile

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.