State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Grows Stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D grew its holdings in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 649,487 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,907 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Welltower were worth $58,564,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Welltower by 1,412.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 594,677 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $54,062,000 after purchasing an additional 555,353 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co purchased a new position in shares of Welltower during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,409,000. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Welltower by 55.0% in the 4th quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,108 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $370,000 after buying an additional 1,458 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Welltower by 27.3% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 447,303 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $36,643,000 after buying an additional 96,046 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in Welltower by 57.4% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 168,106 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $15,158,000 after acquiring an additional 61,324 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WELL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 29th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Welltower in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price objective on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Welltower in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Welltower from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.57.

Welltower Stock Up 0.4 %

Welltower stock traded up $0.34 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $94.34. 1,796,775 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,541,948. Welltower Inc. has a one year low of $72.47 and a one year high of $94.99. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $92.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $89.32. The company has a current ratio of 3.22, a quick ratio of 3.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The company has a market cap of $55.76 billion, a PE ratio of 146.88, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.08.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.94 by ($0.79). The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. Welltower had a net margin of 5.12% and a return on equity of 1.47%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Welltower Inc. will post 4.04 EPS for the current year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were given a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 381.26%.

Welltower Company 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.