Stevens Capital Management LP Takes Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Stevens Capital Management LP bought a new position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 16,171 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $1,458,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WELL. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 1,412.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 594,677 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $54,062,000 after purchasing an additional 555,353 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co purchased a new position in shares of Welltower during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,409,000. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 55.0% in the 4th quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,108 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $370,000 after buying an additional 1,458 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Welltower by 27.3% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 447,303 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $36,643,000 after buying an additional 96,046 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in Welltower by 57.4% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 168,106 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $15,158,000 after acquiring an additional 61,324 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on WELL shares. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Welltower from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 29th. BNP Paribas began coverage on Welltower in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price target for the company. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price target on Welltower from $97.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.57.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of WELL stock traded up $0.34 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $94.34. The company had a trading volume of 1,857,213 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,541,948. Welltower Inc. has a 12-month low of $72.47 and a 12-month high of $94.99. The company has a market capitalization of $55.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 146.88, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 3.22 and a current ratio of 3.22. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $92.04 and a 200-day moving average of $89.32.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.79). Welltower had a return on equity of 1.47% and a net margin of 5.12%. The company had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 381.26%.

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.