Cetera Investment Advisers Grows Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL - Free Report) by 13.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 98,244 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after acquiring an additional 11,499 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers' holdings in Welltower were worth $15,052,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WELL. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Welltower by 53.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,430,496 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,062,495,000 after purchasing an additional 2,939,229 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its position in shares of Welltower by 23,204.3% during the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,900,000 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $2,183,000 after buying an additional 1,891,847 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 17,343.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,738,052 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $266,287,000 after buying an additional 1,728,088 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of Welltower by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 18,706,788 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,357,617,000 after buying an additional 1,652,611 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of Welltower in the 4th quarter worth approximately $194,272,000. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on WELL. Wedbush reissued an "underperform" rating on shares of Welltower in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Welltower from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Welltower from $158.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Scotiabank restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Welltower in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on Welltower from $162.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $169.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Welltower news, Director Andrew Gundlach acquired 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 30th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $151.46 per share, with a total value of $3,029,200.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 20,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,029,200. The trade was a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.21% of the company's stock.

Welltower Stock Performance

WELL stock traded up $1.70 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $166.77. The stock had a trading volume of 946,184 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,977,621. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $154.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $148.77. Welltower Inc. has a 52-week low of $110.74 and a 52-week high of $168.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 4.23 and a current ratio of 4.19. The stock has a market cap of $109.06 billion, a PE ratio of 94.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.92.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.06. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.38% and a net margin of 12.18%. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.49 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.05 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 39.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 12th. This is a positive change from Welltower's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Welltower's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 167.23%.

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.