MetLife Investment Management LLC Acquires 5,915 Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 174,376 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,915 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Welltower were worth $21,977,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its position in Welltower by 3.7% during 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 during the last quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. grew its position in Welltower by 120.3% in the fourth quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 14,417 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,817,000 after acquiring an additional 7,872 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 380,888 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in Welltower by 30.7% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 544,838 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $68,666,000 after purchasing an additional 128,090 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Welltower by 20.1% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on WELL. Scotiabank increased their price target 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. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Welltower from $221.00 to $242.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Welltower from $141.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Welltower in a report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $156.46.

Welltower Price Performance

Shares of Welltower stock opened at $147.17 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $95.89 billion, a PE ratio of 94.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.93. The business has a 50 day moving average of $148.31 and a 200 day moving average of $137.56. Welltower Inc. has a 52 week low of $90.76 and a 52 week high of $158.55. The company has a quick ratio of 4.22, a current ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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, equities research analysts forecast that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 171.79%.

Welltower Company 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.