ST Germain D J Co. Inc. Increases Stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

ST Germain D J Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 536.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,499 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,949 shares during the quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc.’s holdings in Welltower were worth $441,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Welltower by 28.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,477,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $185,649,000 after buying an additional 324,520 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Welltower by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,964 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,256,000 after acquiring an additional 881 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 165.5% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 300 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its stake in shares of Welltower by 3.7% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 470,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $60,228,000 after purchasing an additional 16,946 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Welltower by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 391,264 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $49,925,000 after purchasing an additional 12,265 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on WELL shares. Raymond James increased their price objective on Welltower from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Welltower from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Welltower from $133.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $127.63.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of WELL opened at $124.92 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $77.79 billion, a PE ratio of 82.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 4.10 and a current ratio of 4.10. Welltower Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $85.40 and a fifty-two week high of $140.75. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $131.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $123.43.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by ($0.31). The business had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.95 billion. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.20% and a net margin of 12.22%. Welltower’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.92 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.15%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 176.32%.

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.