Raymond James Trust N.A. Increases Holdings in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Raymond James Trust N.A. raised its holdings in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 2.1% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 24,666 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 512 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A.’s holdings in Welltower were worth $2,571,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in Welltower during the 4th quarter valued at about $8,857,000. Connors Investor Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 10.6% in the 1st quarter. Connors Investor Services Inc. now owns 117,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,999,000 after purchasing an additional 11,238 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 88.1% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,118,333 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $104,072,000 after purchasing an additional 523,656 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. increased its position in Welltower by 26.6% during the 4th quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 89,564 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,085,000 after buying an additional 18,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its position in Welltower by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 1,019,796 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $91,955,000 after buying an additional 72,968 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on WELL. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Welltower from $115.00 to $137.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Welltower from $116.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Welltower from $101.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Wedbush boosted their target price on Welltower from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Welltower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $108.88.

Insider Transactions at Welltower

In other Welltower news, Director Kenneth J. Bacon sold 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.91, for a total value of $187,038.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,514,903.89. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Welltower Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of WELL traded up $0.15 during trading on Monday, reaching $119.52. 129,862 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,655,188. The stock has a market cap of $71.46 billion, a PE ratio of 147.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 3.83, a current ratio of 4.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. Welltower Inc. has a twelve month low of $78.38 and a twelve month high of $119.86. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $109.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $100.11.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.08. Welltower had a return on equity of 2.21% and a net margin of 8.36%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This is a boost from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. Welltower’s payout ratio is currently 330.86%.

About Welltower

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.