Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Invests $68,000 in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 541 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $68,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WELL. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Welltower by 10.6% during the 3rd 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 buying an additional 1,797,330 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings 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 period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Welltower by 638.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Welltower by 0.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,066,213 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $776,657,000 after acquiring an additional 46,332 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Welltower by 11.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,914,363 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $373,126,000 after purchasing an additional 291,839 shares during the period. 94.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on WELL. Raymond James boosted their price objective 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. Mizuho boosted their price target on Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Welltower from $133.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $135.00 price objective (up from $134.00) on shares of Welltower in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.81.

Welltower Stock Performance

Shares of WELL opened at $136.80 on Friday. Welltower Inc. has a 1 year low of $85.40 and a 1 year high of $140.75. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $130.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $125.23. The company has a market capitalization of $85.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.00, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 4.10 and a current ratio of 4.10.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by ($0.31). The business had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.95 billion. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.20% and a net margin of 12.22%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.92 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.3 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 13th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 176.32%.

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.