Ballentine Partners LLC Has $716,000 Holdings in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Ballentine Partners LLC raised its position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 2.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 5,595 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Welltower were worth $716,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WELL. Capital International Investors grew its stake in Welltower by 26.4% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 29,236,326 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,731,842,000 after acquiring an additional 6,104,064 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Welltower in the first quarter valued at approximately $309,917,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 3.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,187,884 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,333,716,000 after purchasing an additional 3,257,213 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. bought a new position in shares of Welltower in the second quarter valued at approximately $254,977,000. Finally, Centersquare Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 19.0% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Welltower Stock Performance

Shares of WELL opened at $130.20 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $79.31 billion, a PE ratio of 126.41, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.21. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $125.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $110.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 4.07 and a quick ratio of 4.07. Welltower Inc. has a 1 year low of $80.80 and a 1 year high of $132.66.

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

Welltower Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were given a $0.67 dividend. This is a positive change from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 260.20%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WELL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Scotiabank raised their target price on Welltower from $121.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Welltower from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Welltower from $103.00 to $107.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Welltower from $115.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $135.00 price target (up from $134.00) on shares of Welltower in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Welltower presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $115.38.

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.