Trust Co. of Vermont Buys 1,088 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Trust Co. of Vermont grew its stake in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 1,088.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,188 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 1,088 shares during the quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont’s holdings in Welltower were worth $152,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WELL. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 26.4% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 29,236,326 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,731,842,000 after purchasing an additional 6,104,064 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Welltower during the first quarter worth about $309,917,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 3.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 3,257,213 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Welltower during the second quarter worth about $254,977,000. Finally, Centersquare Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 19.0% during the first quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 5,329,248 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $507,771,000 after purchasing an additional 849,898 shares during the period. 94.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on WELL shares. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $135.00 target price (up from $134.00) on shares of Welltower in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Welltower from $121.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Welltower from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Welltower from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Welltower from $101.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $115.38.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WELL opened at $132.24 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $79.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 163.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 4.07 and a current ratio of 4.07. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $124.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $109.57. Welltower Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $80.80 and a fifty-two week high of $132.27.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Welltower Inc. will post 4.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.03%. This is an increase from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 330.86%.

Welltower Profile

Welltower Inc (NYSE:WELL), a real estate investment trust (“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 infrastructure needed to scale innovative care delivery models and improve people’s wellness and overall health care experience.