The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Trims Stock Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lessened its holdings in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 414,649 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 12,667 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Welltower were worth $43,227,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WELL. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 26.4% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 29,236,326 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,731,842,000 after purchasing an additional 6,104,064 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 85,930,671 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,748,369,000 after purchasing an additional 5,173,079 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Welltower during the first quarter worth $309,917,000. Centersquare Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 19.0% during the first quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 5,329,248 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $507,771,000 after purchasing an additional 849,898 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Welltower during the first quarter worth $66,905,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on WELL. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $115.00 to $137.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $103.00 to $107.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $101.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $113.38.

Welltower Stock Up 0.5 %

WELL stock opened at $127.20 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $76.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 157.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $119.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $106.01. The company has a quick ratio of 4.07, a current ratio of 4.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. Welltower Inc. has a 52 week low of $78.38 and a 52 week high of $131.31.

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

Welltower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. 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 yield of 2.11%. Welltower’s payout ratio is presently 330.86%.

Welltower Profile

Welltower Inc (NYSE:WELL), a 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 and infrastructure needed to scale innovative care delivery models and improve people's wellness and overall health care experience.