Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.67

Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, July 29th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th will be paid a dividend of 0.67 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.40%. This is a boost from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61.

Welltower has decreased its dividend by an average of 3.3% annually over the last three years. Welltower has a payout ratio of 138.6% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Welltower to earn $4.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 53.4%.

Welltower Stock Up 1.7 %

WELL traded up $1.87 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $111.65. 3,259,204 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,671,377. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.83. The company has a market cap of $66.76 billion, a PE ratio of 135.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.18. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $104.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $96.35. Welltower has a one year low of $78.38 and a one year high of $112.16.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.94 by ($0.72). The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Welltower will post 4.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WELL. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Welltower from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Welltower from $103.00 to $107.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. StockNews.com cut shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Welltower from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Welltower from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. One 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 MarketBeat, Welltower currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $101.32.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kenneth J. Bacon sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.91, for a total value of $187,038.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,514,903.89. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

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.