Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Buys 93,781 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 696.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 107,247 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 93,781 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Welltower were worth $9,670,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 977,362 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $88,129,000 after buying an additional 52,654 shares in the last quarter. Rainey & Randall Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Rainey & Randall Investment Management Inc. now owns 30,495 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,750,000 after buying an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Trust Company N.A acquired a new stake in shares of Welltower during the fourth quarter worth $291,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 214,289 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $19,322,000 after buying an additional 19,459 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 12,987 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,171,000 after buying an additional 292 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Welltower in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price target for the company. Mizuho boosted their price target on Welltower from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 29th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Welltower from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price target on Welltower from $97.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.57.

Welltower Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE WELL opened at $92.98 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.22, a quick ratio of 3.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The company has a market cap of $54.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 145.28, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.08. Welltower Inc. has a 12 month low of $72.47 and a 12 month high of $94.63. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $92.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $89.25.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.94 by ($0.79). The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. Welltower had a return on equity of 1.47% and a net margin of 5.12%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.83 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Welltower Inc. will post 4.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 381.26%.

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.