Welltower (NYSE:WELL) Stock Rating Upgraded by Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Welltower (NYSE:WELL) from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating in a report issued on Friday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has $168.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $146.00.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on WELL. Mizuho increased their price objective on Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. StockNews.com cut Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wedbush upgraded Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $145.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Bank of America raised their price target on Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $145.96.

Welltower Trading Up 1.3 %

WELL opened at $153.54 on Friday. Welltower has a 52 week low of $87.87 and a 52 week high of $153.90. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $136.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $131.38. The firm has a market cap of $98.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 98.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.23. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. On average, equities analysts expect that Welltower will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 171.79%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Welltower

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WELL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Welltower during the fourth quarter worth about $3,943,892,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Welltower by 638.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 6,920,426 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $886,022,000 after buying an additional 5,982,711 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Welltower by 38.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,428,564 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,847,289,000 after buying an additional 3,977,845 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings 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 worth $1,062,495,000 after buying an additional 2,939,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 worth $12,388,151,000 after buying an additional 2,612,044 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

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.