National Pension Service Has $94.48 Million Stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

National Pension Service increased its stake in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,047,763 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 31,791 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned about 0.19% of Welltower worth $94,477,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Welltower by 1.9% in the third quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,372 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $522,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Welltower by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 7,632 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $625,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Welltower by 21.2% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 691 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in shares of Welltower by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 25,167 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,062,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the period. Finally, Stiles Financial Services Inc grew its position in shares of Welltower by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Stiles Financial Services Inc now owns 7,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $648,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares during the period. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WELL. StockNews.com raised shares of Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Scotiabank cut 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 note on Monday, March 4th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Welltower from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Welltower in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. Finally, BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Welltower in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price objective for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $96.07.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of Welltower stock traded down $0.25 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $98.15. 1,030,390 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,523,309. The stock has a market cap of $58.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 121.41, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 3.83 and a current ratio of 3.83. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $92.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $90.00. Welltower Inc. has a 12 month low of $72.47 and a 12 month high of $98.83.

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

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 10th. Welltower’s payout ratio is 301.23%.

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.