Williamson Legacy Group LLC Buys New Stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Williamson Legacy Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 6,432 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $811,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WELL. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Welltower by 638.0% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 6,920,426 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $886,022,000 after acquiring an additional 5,982,711 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Welltower by 38.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,428,564 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,847,289,000 after acquiring an additional 3,977,845 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Welltower by 10.6% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,685,844 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,392,349,000 after acquiring an additional 1,797,330 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Welltower by 31,188.5% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 510,002 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $64,276,000 after acquiring an additional 508,372 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Welltower by 29.2% in the third 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 during the period. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Welltower from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $146.00 to $168.00 in a research report on Friday. Wedbush upgraded shares of Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $167.00 in a research report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com cut shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $145.96.

Welltower Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE WELL opened at $153.54 on Friday. Welltower Inc. has a 12-month low of $87.87 and a 12-month high of $153.90. The stock has a market cap of $98.47 billion, a PE ratio of 98.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 4.22, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The company has a 50-day moving average of $136.36 and a 200 day moving average of $131.38.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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, sell-side analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

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

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.