B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Acquires 2,078 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG increased its holdings in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 7.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 30,582 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,078 shares during the quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in Welltower were worth $3,854,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Welltower by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,295,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,388,151,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612,044 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Welltower during the fourth quarter worth about $3,943,892,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Welltower by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,685,844 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,392,349,000 after buying an additional 1,797,330 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Welltower by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,884,674 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $489,585,000 after acquiring an additional 117,170 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in Welltower by 18.5% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 3,773,827 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $477,314,000 after acquiring an additional 589,255 shares during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Welltower from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Mizuho upped their target price on Welltower from $141.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Welltower from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $146.00 to $168.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $156.46.

Welltower Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Welltower stock opened at $154.10 on Wednesday. Welltower Inc. has a 1 year low of $87.87 and a 1 year high of $158.55. The company has a market capitalization of $98.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 98.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $146.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 4.22 and a quick ratio of 4.22.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. Research analysts forecast that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.