Envestnet Asset Management Inc. Boosts Stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 506,104 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 23,704 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. owned 0.08% of Welltower worth $52,761,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WELL. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in Welltower in the 4th quarter worth $8,857,000. Connors Investor Services Inc. increased its stake in Welltower by 10.6% in the 1st quarter. Connors Investor Services Inc. now owns 117,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,999,000 after buying an additional 11,238 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in Welltower by 88.1% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,118,333 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $104,072,000 after buying an additional 523,656 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. increased its stake in Welltower by 26.6% in the 4th quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 89,564 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,085,000 after buying an additional 18,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its stake in Welltower by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 1,019,796 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $91,955,000 after buying an additional 72,968 shares in the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Welltower from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Welltower from $103.00 to $107.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Welltower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Wedbush lifted their price target on Welltower from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.38.

Welltower Stock Performance

Welltower stock opened at $127.66 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $116.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $104.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 4.07 and a current ratio of 4.07. Welltower Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $78.38 and a fifty-two week high of $131.31. The company has a market capitalization of $76.33 billion, a PE ratio of 157.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.21.

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

Welltower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This is an increase from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. Welltower’s payout ratio is 330.86%.

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.