Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. Acquires Shares of 785 Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. acquired a new stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 785 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $99,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Welltower in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,943,892,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Welltower by 53.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,430,496 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,062,495,000 after acquiring an additional 2,939,229 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Welltower by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,295,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,388,151,000 after acquiring an additional 2,612,044 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its holdings in Welltower by 23,204.3% during the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,900,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,183,000 after acquiring an additional 1,891,847 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Welltower by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 18,706,788 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,357,617,000 after acquiring an additional 1,652,611 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Welltower from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $146.00 to $168.00 in a report on Friday, February 28th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Welltower from $145.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Welltower in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Welltower from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $161.83.

Welltower Stock Performance

NYSE:WELL opened at $150.54 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a current ratio of 4.22. Welltower Inc. has a 52-week low of $99.77 and a 52-week high of $158.55. The firm has a market cap of $98.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 96.50, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s fifty day moving average is $147.51 and its 200 day moving average is $140.38.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.05. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.15% and a net margin of 11.91%. The company had revenue of $2.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 154.02%.

About Welltower

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.