First Trust Advisors LP Acquires 47,353 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL - Free Report) by 25.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 231,615 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 47,353 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP's holdings in Welltower were worth $29,190,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WELL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Welltower during the fourth quarter worth $3,943,892,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Welltower by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,295,258 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $12,388,151,000 after acquiring an additional 2,612,044 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its position in Welltower by 23,204.3% in the 4th quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,900,000 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $2,183,000 after acquiring an additional 1,891,847 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Welltower by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,782,795 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,989,106,000 after acquiring an additional 1,354,231 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Welltower in the 4th quarter valued at $90,565,000. 94.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WELL has been the topic of several research reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an "underperform" rating on shares of Welltower in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Welltower from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 18th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Welltower from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $156.46.

Welltower Stock Performance

Shares of Welltower stock traded up $2.33 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $151.38. 4,444,352 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,876,155. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 97.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $148.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $138.59. Welltower Inc. has a 1-year low of $93.72 and a 1-year high of $158.55. The company has a current ratio of 4.22, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.05. Welltower had a net margin of 11.91% and a return on equity of 3.15%. The business had revenue of $2.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. Welltower's quarterly revenue was up 30.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.77%. Welltower's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 171.79%.

About Welltower

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.