Advisors Asset Management Inc. Sells 6,304 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. trimmed its stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 14.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 37,717 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 6,304 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Welltower were worth $3,524,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in Welltower in the 4th quarter worth about $8,857,000. Connors Investor Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 10.6% in the first 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 during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Welltower by 88.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 523,656 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Welltower by 26.6% during the 4th quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 89,564 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,085,000 after acquiring an additional 18,807 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its position 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 valued at $91,955,000 after acquiring an additional 72,968 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WELL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Welltower from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Welltower from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Welltower from $103.00 to $107.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $101.32.

Welltower Stock Up 1.2 %

WELL stock traded up $1.28 on Friday, hitting $109.77. 2,104,672 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,667,267. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $104.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $96.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 3.83 and a current ratio of 3.83. Welltower Inc. has a 12-month low of $78.38 and a 12-month high of $111.85. The stock has a market cap of $65.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 133.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.18.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.94 by ($0.72). The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.81 billion. Welltower had a net margin of 6.37% and a return on equity of 1.77%. The business’s revenue was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Welltower Inc. will post 4.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th were issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 301.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Welltower

In other news, Director Kenneth J. Bacon sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.91, for a total transaction of $187,038.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 14,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,514,903.89. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Welltower Company 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.