Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC Trims Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 18.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 14,962 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 3,339 shares during the quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC’s holdings in Welltower were worth $1,886,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Welltower by 2.7% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 2,612,044 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Welltower by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 37,096,408 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,674,826,000 after purchasing an additional 318,496 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Welltower in the 4th quarter worth $3,943,892,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in Welltower by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,782,795 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,989,106,000 after purchasing an additional 1,354,231 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Welltower by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,558,841 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,707,570,000 after purchasing an additional 644,494 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Welltower Price Performance

NYSE:WELL opened at $150.39 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $148.09 and its 200 day moving average is $138.93. Welltower Inc. has a 12 month low of $93.72 and a 12 month high of $158.55. The company has a market capitalization of $97.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 96.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 4.22, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.05. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.15% and a net margin of 11.91%. The firm had revenue of $2.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.01 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 30.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. Welltower’s payout ratio is currently 171.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on WELL. Mizuho raised their price objective on Welltower from $141.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Welltower from $145.00 to $157.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank lifted their target price 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $157.46.

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.