LifePlan Financial LLC Invests $388,000 in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

LifePlan Financial LLC bought a new stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 4,302 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $388,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Welltower by 40.0% in the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,381 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,671,000 after buying an additional 4,962 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 35.4% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,254 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $505,000 after purchasing an additional 1,373 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 31,094 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,989,000 after purchasing an additional 982 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 97.4% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 298 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. Finally, West Family Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Welltower in the 1st quarter worth about $220,000. 94.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on WELL shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on shares of Welltower in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $115.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 29th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Welltower from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Welltower from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of Welltower in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.57.

Welltower Stock Performance

WELL traded down $0.67 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $89.12. 1,547,952 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,578,940. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $91.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $88.80. Welltower Inc. has a 12 month low of $72.47 and a 12 month high of $94.63. The stock has a market cap of $52.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 138.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 3.22 and a quick ratio of 3.22.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.94 by ($0.79). Welltower had a return on equity of 1.47% and a net margin of 5.12%. The company had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. Welltower’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.74%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. Welltower’s payout ratio is currently 381.25%.

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.