Welltower (NYSE:WELL) Hits New 1-Year High at $118.82

Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $118.82 and last traded at $118.33, with a volume of 120097 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $117.82.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on WELL. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $116.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $115.00 to $137.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $101.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Five investment 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $108.88.

Welltower Price Performance

The business’s 50 day moving average is $108.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $99.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.13 billion, a PE ratio of 145.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 4.07 and a quick ratio of 3.83.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. Welltower had a net margin of 8.36% and a return on equity of 2.21%. Welltower’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This is an increase from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 330.86%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Welltower news, Director Kenneth J. Bacon sold 1,800 shares of Welltower stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.91, for a total transaction of $187,038.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,514,903.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of Welltower in the fourth quarter worth approximately $8,857,000. Connors Investor Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Welltower by 10.6% in the first quarter. Connors Investor Services Inc. now owns 117,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,999,000 after acquiring an additional 11,238 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Welltower by 88.1% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,118,333 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $104,072,000 after acquiring an additional 523,656 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Welltower by 26.6% in the fourth quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 89,564 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,085,000 after acquiring an additional 18,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its holdings in Welltower by 7.7% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 72,968 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

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.