Cetera Investment Advisers Sells 1,887 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Cetera Investment Advisers decreased its holdings in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 86,745 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,887 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Welltower were worth $10,932,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WELL. Norges Bank bought a new position in Welltower in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,943,892,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 53.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,430,496 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,062,495,000 after buying an additional 2,939,229 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment raised its position in Welltower by 23,204.3% in the 4th quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,900,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,183,000 after buying an additional 1,891,847 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Welltower by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 18,706,788 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,357,617,000 after buying an additional 1,652,611 shares during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on WELL. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Welltower in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Welltower from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $146.00 to $168.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Mizuho increased their price target on Welltower from $141.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $161.83.

Welltower Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Welltower stock opened at $149.38 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a current ratio of 4.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 95.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.94. Welltower Inc. has a 52-week low of $98.36 and a 52-week high of $158.55. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $147.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.80.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its quarterly 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 net margin of 11.91% and a return on equity of 3.15%. The company had revenue of $2.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. Welltower’s revenue was up 30.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 14th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 154.02%.

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.