245 Shares in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Acquired by First Foundation Advisors

First Foundation Advisors acquired a new position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 245 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $26,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 3.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,187,884 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,333,716,000 after buying an additional 3,257,213 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Welltower by 26.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 29,236,326 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,731,842,000 after purchasing an additional 6,104,064 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Welltower during the 4th quarter valued at $2,453,039,000. Centersquare Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Welltower by 19.0% in the 1st quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 5,329,248 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $507,771,000 after buying an additional 849,898 shares during the period. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in Welltower by 12.4% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 4,433,816 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $414,229,000 after buying an additional 489,533 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on WELL. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Welltower from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Welltower from $115.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Welltower from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $109.58.

Welltower Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:WELL opened at $128.99 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $78.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 159.25, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. Welltower Inc. has a 12 month low of $78.38 and a 12 month high of $129.11. The company has a current ratio of 4.07, a quick ratio of 4.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $113.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $102.77.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. Welltower had a return on equity of 2.21% and a net margin of 8.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. This is an increase from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 330.86%.

Welltower 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.