Graham Capital Management L.P. Purchases New Shares in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Graham Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 6,982 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $880,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in WELL. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 120.3% in the fourth quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 14,417 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,817,000 after buying an additional 7,872 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 30.7% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 544,838 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $68,666,000 after buying an additional 128,090 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,696,000 after buying an additional 2,250 shares during the period. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 17.3% in the fourth quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 1,936,954 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $244,114,000 after buying an additional 285,015 shares during the period. Finally, Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Welltower in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $367,000. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WELL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Welltower from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Welltower from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Wedbush restated an "underperform" rating on shares of Welltower in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Welltower from $145.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $161.83.

Welltower Stock Performance

NYSE WELL traded up $1.73 on Friday, hitting $148.62. 2,412,621 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,902,085. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 4.22 and a quick ratio of 4.22. The business's fifty day moving average is $147.44 and its 200 day moving average is $140.21. Welltower Inc. has a 52 week low of $99.77 and a 52 week high of $158.55. The company has a market capitalization of $97.19 billion, a PE ratio of 95.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.94.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.40 billion. Welltower had a net margin of 11.91% and a return on equity of 3.15%. The company's revenue was up 30.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 14th. Welltower's payout ratio is presently 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.