Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Shares Bought by J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 16.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,788 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 537 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Welltower were worth $477,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WELL. Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 3.7% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 470,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $60,228,000 after buying an additional 16,946 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Welltower by 29.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,684,446 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $215,659,000 after buying an additional 380,888 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Welltower by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after buying an additional 2,250 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Welltower by 28.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,477,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $185,649,000 after buying an additional 324,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Welltower by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 20,931 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,638,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wedbush upgraded shares of Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $145.00 to $167.00 in a report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $140.19.

Welltower Stock Performance

NYSE WELL opened at $149.71 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $96.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 95.97, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day moving average of $133.00 and a 200-day moving average of $129.74. The company has a current ratio of 4.22, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Welltower Inc. has a 1-year low of $87.87 and a 1-year high of $152.81.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a net margin of 11.91% and a return on equity of 3.15%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Welltower Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 171.79%.

About Welltower

Welltower Inc (NYSE:WELL), a real estate investment trust (“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 infrastructure needed to scale innovative care delivery models and improve people’s wellness and overall health care experience.