Cape Investment Advisory Inc. Makes New Investment in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Cape Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 422 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $53,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its position in shares of Welltower by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 470,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $60,228,000 after purchasing an additional 16,946 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 29.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,684,446 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $215,659,000 after acquiring an additional 380,888 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 20.1% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,696,000 after acquiring an additional 2,250 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 28.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,477,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $185,649,000 after acquiring an additional 324,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 20,931 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,638,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $144.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Welltower from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $146.00 to $168.00 in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Welltower currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $145.96.

Welltower Price Performance

WELL stock opened at $153.54 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $136.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $131.58. The company has a market capitalization of $98.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 98.42, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.23. Welltower Inc. has a 52-week low of $87.87 and a 52-week high of $153.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a current ratio of 4.22.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly 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 11.91% and a return on equity of 3.15%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. Welltower’s payout ratio is currently 171.79%.

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.