&Partners Buys Shares of 2,671 Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

&Partners bought a new stake in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 2,671 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $250,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Welltower during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Welltower during the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Welltower during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Welltower during the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Salem Investment Counselors Inc. raised its stake in Welltower by 84.0% during the 4th quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 425 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on WELL shares. BNP Paribas started coverage on Welltower in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price objective for the company. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Welltower from $96.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Welltower from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on Welltower from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $98.07.

Welltower Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of WELL stock opened at $102.32 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 3.83, a quick ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 126.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.16. Welltower Inc. has a 12-month low of $75.86 and a 12-month high of $105.69. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $99.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $93.55.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.72). Welltower had a return on equity of 1.77% and a net margin of 6.37%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.81 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.85 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th were paid a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. Welltower’s payout ratio is 301.23%.

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 stock was sold at an average price of $103.91, for a total value of $187,038.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 14,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,514,903.89. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.12% 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.