Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Stock Holdings Boosted by Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co.

Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its position in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,575,721 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 38,425 shares during the period. Welltower makes up 3.9% of Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Welltower were worth $324,618,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WELL. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its position in shares of Welltower by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 470,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $60,228,000 after buying an additional 16,946 shares during the last quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Welltower by 120.3% during the 4th quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 14,417 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,817,000 after buying an additional 7,872 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Welltower by 29.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,684,446 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $215,659,000 after acquiring an additional 380,888 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,696,000 after acquiring an additional 2,250 shares during the period. Finally, Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC boosted its stake in Welltower by 17.3% in the 4th quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 1,936,954 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $244,114,000 after purchasing an additional 285,015 shares during the period. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WELL. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Welltower from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com lowered Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank raised their price target on Welltower from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Raymond James boosted 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. Finally, Wedbush raised shares of Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $145.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $156.46.

Welltower Stock Performance

Welltower stock opened at $150.24 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $145.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.34. Welltower Inc. has a twelve month low of $87.87 and a twelve month high of $158.55. The company has a market capitalization of $96.35 billion, a PE ratio of 96.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 4.22, a current ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Research analysts expect that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.78%. Welltower’s payout ratio is currently 171.79%.

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.