Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 5.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,115 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 245 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.’s holdings in Welltower were worth $519,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its position in shares of Welltower by 41.0% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 326,342 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $41,129,000 after purchasing an additional 94,863 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in shares of Welltower by 69.9% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 538,763 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $67,900,000 after purchasing an additional 221,692 shares in the last quarter. Sandy Spring Bank increased its holdings in Welltower by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Sandy Spring Bank now owns 16,512 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,081,000 after buying an additional 1,161 shares during the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in Welltower by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 262,012 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $33,021,000 after buying an additional 16,214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stokes Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in Welltower during the 4th quarter worth about $553,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Welltower from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Welltower from $140.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Welltower from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Welltower has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $156.46.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of WELL opened at $146.84 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $87.87 and a fifty-two week high of $158.55. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $143.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $134.71. The company has a market capitalization of $94.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 94.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.20.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.15% and a net margin of 11.91%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.83%. 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.