Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Raises Stock Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 53.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,691 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,225 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Welltower were worth $2,608,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of WELL. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its holdings in Welltower by 3.7% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 470,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $60,228,000 after buying an additional 16,946 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Welltower by 29.2% in the 3rd 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 lifted its stake in shares of Welltower by 20.1% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,477,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $185,649,000 after purchasing an additional 324,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 20,931 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,638,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Welltower Stock Up 0.6 %

WELL stock opened at $151.54 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 company has a market cap of $97.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 97.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50-day moving average is $135.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $131.13. Welltower Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $87.87 and a fifty-two week high of $152.81.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, analysts forecast 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, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 171.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Wedbush upgraded Welltower from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $167.00 in a report on Friday, February 14th. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $142.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Welltower presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $140.19.

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.