California Public Employees Retirement System Purchases 52,654 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 977,362 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 52,654 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.18% of Welltower worth $88,129,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WELL. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 25.1% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 2,596,718 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 2.7% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 2,156,673 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Welltower by 22.9% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in Welltower by 1,412.2% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its stake in Welltower by 62.6% in the third 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 during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WELL has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 29th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Welltower in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho lifted their target price on Welltower from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. Scotiabank cut their target price on Welltower from $97.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Welltower in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $115.00 target price on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.57.

Welltower Trading Up 0.8 %

Welltower stock opened at $93.70 on Thursday. 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. The company has a market capitalization of $55.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 146.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.08. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $92.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $89.28.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.15 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 analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.04 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. Welltower’s payout ratio is presently 381.26%.

Welltower Company Profile

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.