Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,590,000 shares, a decrease of 22.2% from the September 30th total of 11,040,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,690,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Welltower

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Connors Investor Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Welltower by 10.6% during the first quarter. Connors Investor Services Inc. now owns 117,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,999,000 after buying an additional 11,238 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Welltower by 88.1% in 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 in the last quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Welltower by 19.0% in the 1st quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 5,329,248 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $507,771,000 after purchasing an additional 849,898 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 147.9% during the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 22,294 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,083,000 after purchasing an additional 13,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co. bought a new stake in shares of Welltower during the second quarter valued at approximately $674,000. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Welltower from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Welltower from $103.00 to $107.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $135.00 price target (up from $134.00) on shares of Welltower in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Welltower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Welltower presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $115.38.

Welltower Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of WELL stock traded down $1.84 on Friday, hitting $130.20. 1,837,117 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,234,433. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 4.07 and a current ratio of 4.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $79.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 126.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.21. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $125.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $110.95. Welltower has a one year low of $80.80 and a one year high of $132.66.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. Welltower had a return on equity of 2.21% and a net margin of 8.36%. Welltower’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Welltower will post 4.19 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is a positive change from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.06%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 260.20%.

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.