Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Stock Position Boosted by Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund boosted its stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 63.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 128,339 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 49,900 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Welltower were worth $16,175,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WELL. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Welltower by 21,236.0% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 173,888 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $22,263,000 after buying an additional 173,073 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 19.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 20,566 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,633,000 after purchasing an additional 3,335 shares in the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 17.4% during the 3rd quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 9,336 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,195,000 after purchasing an additional 1,381 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 5,595 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $716,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lake Street Advisors Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 4,293 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $550,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. 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. Wedbush upgraded shares of Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $145.00 to $167.00 in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Welltower from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com cut shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Welltower has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $140.19.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of WELL opened at $148.69 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $95.35 billion, a PE ratio of 95.31, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $133.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $130.36. 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 twelve month low of $87.87 and a twelve month 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a net margin of 11.91% and a return on equity of 3.15%. As a group, research analysts expect that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Welltower’s payout ratio is presently 171.79%.

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.