Callahan Advisors LLC Sells 3,089 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Callahan Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 6.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 42,443 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 3,089 shares during the quarter. Callahan Advisors LLC’s holdings in Welltower were worth $5,349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its stake in shares of Welltower by 3.7% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 470,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $60,228,000 after buying an additional 16,946 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Welltower by 29.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,684,446 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $215,659,000 after buying an additional 380,888 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Welltower by 20.1% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after buying an additional 2,250 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Welltower by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,477,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $185,649,000 after buying an additional 324,520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Welltower by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 20,931 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,638,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WELL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James increased their target price 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Wedbush upgraded shares of Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $145.00 to $167.00 in a report on Friday. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Welltower presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $138.58.

Welltower Stock Performance

Shares of WELL opened at $150.03 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 4.10 and a quick ratio of 4.10. Welltower Inc. has a one year low of $87.87 and a one year high of $151.96. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $132.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $129.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $93.42 billion, a PE ratio of 98.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.23.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 3.20%. On average, analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. Welltower’s payout ratio is 176.32%.

Welltower 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.