Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC Buys Shares of 2,406 Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,406 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WELL. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Welltower by 25.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 12,925,394 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,058,848,000 after purchasing an additional 2,596,718 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Welltower by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 80,757,592 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,615,662,000 after buying an additional 2,156,673 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Welltower by 22.9% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,486,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $695,223,000 after buying an additional 1,581,084 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Welltower by 1,412.2% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 594,677 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $54,062,000 after acquiring an additional 555,353 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Welltower by 62.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,367,437 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $112,020,000 after acquiring an additional 526,386 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WELL opened at $97.20 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 3.83 and a current ratio of 3.83. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $92.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $89.90. The stock has a market cap of $58.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 119.48, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.07. Welltower Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $72.47 and a fifty-two week high of $98.19.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.72). The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.81 billion. Welltower had a net margin of 6.37% and a return on equity of 1.77%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.85 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be given a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 10th. Welltower’s payout ratio is 301.23%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WELL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Welltower in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 target price on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Welltower in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Welltower from $97.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Welltower has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.57.

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.