Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases New Holdings in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 33,500 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $3,021,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Welltower during the fourth quarter valued at $1,104,830,000. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in shares of Welltower by 426.4% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 4,927,021 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $353,218,000 after buying an additional 3,991,041 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Welltower by 25.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 12,925,394 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,058,848,000 after acquiring an additional 2,596,718 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Welltower by 2.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 80,757,592 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $6,615,662,000 after acquiring an additional 2,156,673 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Welltower by 22.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,486,611 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $695,223,000 after acquiring an additional 1,581,084 shares during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WELL. Mizuho increased their price target on Welltower from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. KeyCorp raised their target price on Welltower from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of Welltower in a report on Monday, March 18th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $104.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Welltower from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $92.00 to $99.00 in a research note on Monday, December 18th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Welltower from $97.00 to $96.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $95.57.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of Welltower stock traded down $0.79 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $88.31. The stock had a trading volume of 1,911,129 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,569,452. The business has a fifty day moving average of $91.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $88.86. The firm has a market cap of $52.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 139.25, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.08. Welltower Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $72.47 and a fifty-two week high of $94.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 3.22 and a quick ratio of 3.22.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.94 by ($0.79). The business had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. Welltower had a net margin of 5.12% and a return on equity of 1.47%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.83 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Welltower Inc. will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.76%. Welltower's dividend payout ratio is currently 381.26%.

Welltower Profile

Welltower Inc NYSE: WELL, a 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 and infrastructure needed to scale innovative care delivery models and improve people's wellness and overall health care experience.