Middleton & Co. Inc. MA Acquires New Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA acquired a new stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 1,700 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WELL. First Foundation Advisors acquired a new stake in Welltower in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Welltower during the second quarter worth $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Welltower during the second quarter worth $30,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 338.7% during the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 329 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 254 shares during the period. Finally, Centerpoint Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Welltower during the second quarter worth $31,000. 94.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WELL. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Welltower from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Welltower from $103.00 to $107.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Welltower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Welltower from $101.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $115.38.

Welltower Trading Down 1.4 %

WELL opened at $130.20 on Friday. Welltower Inc. has a 1-year low of $80.80 and a 1-year high of $132.66. The company has a current ratio of 4.07, a quick ratio of 4.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a market cap of $79.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 126.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $125.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $110.55.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. Welltower had a net margin of 8.36% and a return on equity of 2.21%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This is an increase from Welltower’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.06%. Welltower’s payout ratio is presently 260.20%.

Welltower Profile

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.