Bank of America Corp DE Grows Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL - Free Report) by 9.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,706,788 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after acquiring an additional 1,652,611 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE owned 3.00% of Welltower worth $2,357,617,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in Welltower by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 2,053 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $259,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in Welltower by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,152 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $271,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC raised its position in shares of Welltower by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC now owns 2,213 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $279,000 after buying an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC lifted its position in Welltower by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 3,451 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $435,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Graypoint LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 3,427 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $432,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "equal weight" rating on shares of Welltower in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Wedbush reiterated an "underperform" rating on shares of Welltower in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Welltower from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Welltower from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $146.00 to $168.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $161.83.

Welltower Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WELL traded down $0.34 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $150.59. 2,114,406 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,881,599. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $148.05 and a 200 day moving average of $139.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 96.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.94. Welltower Inc. has a 1 year low of $96.91 and a 1 year high of $158.55. 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 - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.05. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.15% and a net margin of 11.91%. The firm had revenue of $2.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.01 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 30.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 14th. Welltower's dividend payout ratio is currently 154.02%.

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.