Franklin Resources Inc. Acquires 46,197 Shares of Welltower Inc. $WELL

Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) by 11.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 467,450 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 46,197 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of Welltower worth $71,861,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in WELL. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Welltower by 14.0% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 21,289,684 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,261,792,000 after purchasing an additional 2,614,562 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Welltower by 5.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,012,454 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,303,484,000 after buying an additional 723,887 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Welltower by 41.6% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,923,852 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,367,226,000 after buying an additional 2,622,384 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Welltower by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,467,221 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,297,263,000 after buying an additional 36,725 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of Welltower by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 8,164,840 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,250,935,000 after buying an additional 532,135 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Welltower from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Welltower in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Welltower from $150.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. UBS Group set a $203.00 price target on shares of Welltower in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Welltower from $182.00 to $214.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Welltower presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $192.73.

Welltower Stock Performance

Shares of WELL stock opened at $202.60 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 4.19 and a current ratio of 5.47. Welltower Inc. has a 52 week low of $123.11 and a 52 week high of $203.18. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $179.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $165.75. The company has a market capitalization of $139.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 139.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.92.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.04. Welltower had a net margin of 9.69% and a return on equity of 2.71%. The company had revenue of $2.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.11 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 30.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Welltower has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.240-5.300 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 10th. Welltower’s dividend payout ratio is 204.14%.

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.