Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Takes $8.24 Million Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 65,363 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $8,238,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 470,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $60,228,000 after purchasing an additional 16,946 shares in the last quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 120.3% during the 4th quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 14,417 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,817,000 after purchasing an additional 7,872 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Welltower by 29.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,684,446 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $215,659,000 after purchasing an additional 380,888 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its holdings in 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 worth $1,696,000 after acquiring an additional 2,250 shares during the period. Finally, Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC raised its holdings in Welltower by 17.3% in the 4th quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 1,936,954 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $244,114,000 after acquiring an additional 285,015 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Welltower Stock Performance

NYSE WELL opened at $146.84 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $94.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.13, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.20. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $143.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $134.62. Welltower Inc. has a twelve month low of $87.87 and a twelve month high of $158.55. 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 posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a net margin of 11.91% and a return on equity of 3.15%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.83%. Welltower’s payout ratio is currently 171.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Welltower from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Welltower from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $146.00 to $168.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Welltower from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $156.46.

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.