Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Position Raised by State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D grew its position in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 649,487 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,907 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D owned 0.12% of Welltower worth $58,564,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WELL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $6,615,662,000 after acquiring an additional 2,156,673 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $1,058,848,000 after purchasing an additional 2,596,718 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised 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 buying an additional 1,581,084 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in Welltower by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 7,986,481 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $720,141,000 after buying an additional 99,314 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 0.7% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,627,731 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $542,944,000 after buying an additional 48,051 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Welltower Stock Performance

WELL traded up $0.34 during trading on Friday, reaching $94.34. 1,796,775 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,541,948. The company has a market capitalization of $55.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 146.88, a PEG ratio of 2.38 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. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $92.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $89.32. Welltower Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $72.47 and a fifty-two week high of $94.99.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.79). The company had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. Welltower had a net margin of 5.12% and a return on equity of 1.47%. The business’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.83 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is 381.26%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WELL. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Welltower in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Welltower from $97.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 4th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Welltower from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Welltower in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Welltower presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.57.

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.