Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Takes $1.50 Million Position in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 11,693 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $1,497,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WELL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Welltower by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,814,741 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $814,678,000 after buying an additional 62,942 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Welltower by 3.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,026,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $419,727,000 after buying an additional 139,430 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 11.1% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,914,363 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $373,126,000 after acquiring an additional 291,839 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in Welltower by 5.2% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 2,748,062 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $286,487,000 after acquiring an additional 134,611 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in Welltower by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 2,622,524 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $273,398,000 after acquiring an additional 145,142 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WELL. Wedbush raised their price objective on Welltower from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com raised Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Welltower from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Welltower from $115.00 to $137.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Welltower from $133.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $117.50.

Welltower Trading Up 2.4 %

NYSE:WELL opened at $138.96 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $131.47 and a 200 day moving average of $117.65. The company has a quick ratio of 4.10, a current ratio of 4.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Welltower Inc. has a 52 week low of $85.40 and a 52 week high of $140.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $86.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.42, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.20.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.04 by ($0.31). Welltower had a net margin of 12.22% and a return on equity of 3.20%. The business had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.95 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.92 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Welltower Inc. will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Welltower Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th were given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 13th. Welltower’s payout ratio is currently 176.32%.

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.