Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Shares Purchased by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its position in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 5.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 977,362 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 52,654 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Welltower were worth $88,129,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WELL. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Welltower by 25.1% in 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. raised its position in Welltower by 2.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,156,673 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Welltower by 22.9% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,581,084 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Welltower by 1,412.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 594,677 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $54,062,000 after purchasing an additional 555,353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in Welltower by 62.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,367,437 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $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.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on WELL. Mizuho increased their price target on Welltower from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Scotiabank reduced their price target on Welltower from $97.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 4th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Welltower from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 5th. BNP Paribas began coverage on Welltower in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Welltower in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.57.

Welltower Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:WELL opened at $93.70 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $92.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $89.28. The company has a market capitalization of $55.38 billion, a PE ratio of 146.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 3.22, a current ratio of 3.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Welltower Inc. has a 52-week low of $72.47 and a 52-week high of $94.63.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.79). Welltower had a return on equity of 1.47% and a net margin of 5.12%. The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.83 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.04 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.