Welltower (NYSE:WELL) Rating Increased to Overweight at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Welltower (NYSE:WELL) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $158.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on WELL. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Welltower from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Welltower from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Wedbush raised shares of Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com lowered Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Welltower from $141.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $156.46.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WELL opened at $136.50 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $88.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $147.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $136.58. Welltower has a fifty-two week low of $87.87 and a fifty-two week high of $158.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a current ratio of 4.22.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.15% and a net margin of 11.91%. Analysts expect that Welltower will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Welltower’s payout ratio is currently 171.79%.

Institutional Trading of Welltower

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WELL. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Welltower during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Welltower in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Franchise Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Welltower in the first quarter valued at $32,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Welltower during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Welltower by 165.5% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 300 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Welltower Company Profile

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.