Machina Capital S.A.S. Purchases New Shares in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Machina Capital S.A.S. purchased a new stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 7,089 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $893,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WELL. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Welltower by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,685,844 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,392,349,000 after buying an additional 1,797,330 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Welltower by 38.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,428,564 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,847,289,000 after buying an additional 3,977,845 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Welltower by 638.0% in the 3rd 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 valued at $886,022,000 after buying an additional 5,982,711 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Welltower by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,066,213 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $776,657,000 after buying an additional 46,332 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Welltower by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,884,674 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $489,585,000 after buying an additional 117,170 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WELL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho upped their price target 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. Wedbush raised shares of Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $145.00 to $167.00 in a research note 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. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Welltower from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $148.42.

Welltower Price Performance

Welltower stock opened at $147.22 on Friday. Welltower Inc. has a 52 week low of $87.87 and a 52 week high of $158.55. The company has a quick ratio of 4.22, a current ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $138.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $132.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.41 billion, a PE ratio of 94.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.20.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a net margin of 11.91% and a return on equity of 3.15%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.82%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.