Sarasin & Partners LLP Has $3.54 Million Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Sarasin & Partners LLP reduced its stake in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 33,962 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,030 shares during the quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP’s holdings in Welltower were worth $3,541,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in Welltower during the fourth quarter worth $8,857,000. Connors Investor Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Welltower by 10.6% in the first quarter. Connors Investor Services Inc. now owns 117,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,999,000 after buying an additional 11,238 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Welltower by 88.1% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,118,333 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $104,072,000 after buying an additional 523,656 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Welltower by 26.6% in the fourth quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 89,564 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,085,000 after buying an additional 18,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its stake in shares of Welltower by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 1,019,796 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $91,955,000 after buying an additional 72,968 shares in the last quarter. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on WELL. StockNews.com upgraded Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 3rd. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Welltower from $116.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Welltower from $101.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Welltower from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Welltower from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Welltower presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $107.19.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kenneth J. Bacon sold 1,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.91, for a total transaction of $187,038.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,514,903.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Welltower Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:WELL traded down $0.42 during trading on Friday, hitting $115.92. 3,472,521 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,689,963. The stock has a market cap of $69.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 143.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.18. Welltower Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $78.38 and a fifty-two week high of $118.63. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $107.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $99.06. The company has a current ratio of 4.07, a quick ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. Welltower had a return on equity of 2.21% and a net margin of 8.36%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is a positive change from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.31%. Welltower’s payout ratio is 330.86%.

Welltower Profile

Welltower Inc (NYSE:WELL), a 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 and infrastructure needed to scale innovative care delivery models and improve people's wellness and overall health care experience.