Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Shares Purchased by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 0.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,369,780 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 12,424 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 1.40% of Welltower worth $872,551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in Welltower in the fourth quarter worth about $8,857,000. Connors Investor Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Welltower by 10.6% during the 1st quarter. Connors Investor Services Inc. now owns 117,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,999,000 after purchasing an additional 11,238 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 88.1% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,118,333 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $104,072,000 after purchasing an additional 523,656 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its position in Welltower by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 1,019,796 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $91,955,000 after purchasing an additional 72,968 shares during the period. Finally, Centersquare Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Welltower by 19.0% during the 1st quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 5,329,248 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $507,771,000 after buying an additional 849,898 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Welltower from $101.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 3rd. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Welltower from $121.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Welltower from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Welltower from $115.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $113.38.

Welltower Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of Welltower stock opened at $126.55 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $118.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.44. Welltower Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $78.38 and a fifty-two week high of $131.31. The firm has a market cap of $75.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 156.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a quick ratio of 4.07, a current ratio of 4.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.08. Welltower had a net margin of 8.36% and a return on equity of 2.21%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Welltower Inc. will post 4.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. This is an increase from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is 330.86%.

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.