Wexford Capital LP Acquires Shares of 10,500 Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Wexford Capital LP purchased a new position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 10,500 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $1,323,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WELL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Welltower in the fourth quarter worth $3,943,892,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Welltower by 53.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,430,496 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,062,495,000 after purchasing an additional 2,939,229 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Welltower by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,295,258 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $12,388,151,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612,044 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment raised its stake in shares of Welltower by 23,204.3% in the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,900,000 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,183,000 after purchasing an additional 1,891,847 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Welltower by 9.7% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 1,652,611 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WELL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush restated an "underperform" rating on shares of Welltower in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised Welltower from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $146.00 to $168.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Welltower from $145.00 to $157.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Welltower in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Welltower from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $161.83.

Welltower Stock Performance

NYSE WELL traded down $2.86 on Wednesday, reaching $148.36. 2,154,109 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,910,877. Welltower Inc. has a one year low of $99.77 and a one year high of $158.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.02 billion, a PE ratio of 95.10, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.94. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $147.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $140.51. The company has a current ratio of 4.22, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.20 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.05. Welltower had a net margin of 11.91% and a return on equity of 3.15%. The company had revenue of $2.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.40 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 30.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect 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 will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 14th. Welltower's payout ratio is 154.02%.

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.