Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC Trims Stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 14.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,686 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,150 shares during the period. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Welltower were worth $843,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Welltower during the 4th quarter worth $3,943,892,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 53.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,430,496 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,062,495,000 after acquiring an additional 2,939,229 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,295,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,388,151,000 after acquiring an additional 2,612,044 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 23,204.3% during the 4th quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,900,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,183,000 after acquiring an additional 1,891,847 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 18,706,788 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,357,617,000 after acquiring an additional 1,652,611 shares during the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on WELL shares. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $141.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Welltower in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $145.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. 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 data from MarketBeat, Welltower has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $161.83.

Welltower Price Performance

WELL stock opened at $143.10 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $147.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $140.02. Welltower Inc. has a 12-month low of $99.30 and a 12-month high of $158.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $93.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.73, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.94. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.20 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $2.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.01 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 14th. Welltower’s payout ratio is 154.02%.

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.