Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp Sells 1,141 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp decreased its stake in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 46,057 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,141 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp’s holdings in Welltower were worth $5,805,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of WELL. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its stake in Welltower by 3.7% in the third 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. boosted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 120.3% in 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 buying an additional 7,872 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Welltower by 29.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,684,446 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $215,659,000 after buying an additional 380,888 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its holdings in Welltower by 20.1% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,696,000 after buying an additional 2,250 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC increased its holdings in Welltower by 17.3% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 285,015 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on WELL shares. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Raymond James lifted their price target on Welltower from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Mizuho lifted their target price on Welltower from $141.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Welltower from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $146.00 to $168.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Welltower currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $156.46.

Welltower Price Performance

NYSE:WELL opened at $143.26 on Monday. Welltower Inc. has a 52 week low of $87.87 and a 52 week high of $158.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 4.22 and a current ratio of 4.22. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $147.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $136.41. The firm has a market cap of $92.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.93.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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, sell-side analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Welltower’s payout ratio is 171.79%.

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.