AIA Group Ltd Sells 1,600 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

AIA Group Ltd cut its position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 11.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,200 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,600 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Welltower were worth $1,538,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WELL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Welltower by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,295,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,388,151,000 after acquiring an additional 2,612,044 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Welltower during the fourth quarter worth about $3,943,892,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Welltower by 10.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,685,844 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,392,349,000 after buying an additional 1,797,330 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Welltower by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,884,674 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $489,585,000 after buying an additional 117,170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its stake in Welltower by 18.5% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 3,773,827 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $477,314,000 after buying an additional 589,255 shares during the period. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Welltower Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of WELL stock opened at $153.24 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $146.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $135.79. Welltower Inc. has a 1 year low of $87.87 and a 1 year high of $158.55. The company has a current ratio of 4.22, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock has a market cap of $98.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 98.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.20.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.15% and a net margin of 11.91%. On average, research analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Welltower’s payout ratio is presently 171.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on WELL shares. Mizuho lifted their target price on Welltower from $141.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Wedbush upgraded shares of Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $145.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Welltower from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $156.46.

Welltower Company 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.