New York State Common Retirement Fund Raises Stock Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 766,965 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 23,600 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.12% of Welltower worth $96,661,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WELL. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Welltower by 638.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 6,920,426 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $886,022,000 after acquiring an additional 5,982,711 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Welltower by 38.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,428,564 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,847,289,000 after acquiring an additional 3,977,845 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Welltower by 10.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,685,844 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,392,349,000 after acquiring an additional 1,797,330 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Welltower by 29.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,684,446 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $215,659,000 after acquiring an additional 380,888 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in Welltower by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,477,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $185,649,000 after acquiring an additional 324,520 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WELL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Welltower from $142.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Welltower from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $140.19.

Welltower Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE WELL opened at $149.71 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a current ratio of 4.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $96.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 95.97, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $133.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $129.74. Welltower Inc. has a 52-week low of $87.87 and a 52-week high of $152.81.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a net margin of 11.91% and a return on equity of 3.15%. Sell-side analysts expect that Welltower Inc. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 171.79%.

Welltower Company 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.