Financial Counselors Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Financial Counselors Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 49.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,304 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 5,130 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Welltower were worth $478,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $6,615,662,000 after buying an additional 2,156,673 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Welltower during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,104,830,000. 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 worth $1,058,848,000 after acquiring an additional 2,596,718 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Welltower by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,792,006 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $772,087,000 after acquiring an additional 237,800 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Welltower by 22.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,486,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $695,223,000 after acquiring an additional 1,581,084 shares during the period. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, March 29th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Welltower from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $92.00 to $99.00 in a report on Monday, December 18th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Welltower in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price target on the stock. One equities 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.57.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of Welltower stock opened at $89.79 on Friday. Welltower Inc. has a 52-week low of $72.47 and a 52-week high of $94.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 140.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a fifty day moving average of $91.53 and a 200-day moving average of $88.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 3.22 and a current ratio of 3.22.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 5.12% and a return on equity of 1.47%. The business had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. Welltower’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Welltower Inc. will post 4.03 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were given a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. Welltower’s payout ratio 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.