Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Plans $0.67 Quarterly Dividend

Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of 0.67 per share by the real estate investment trust on Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th.

Welltower has raised its dividend by an average of 1.6% annually over the last three years. Welltower has a payout ratio of 118.6% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Welltower to earn $4.79 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.9%.

Welltower Stock Performance

Shares of WELL stock traded up $3.09 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $146.49. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,815,228 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,556,744. The company has a market cap of $91.22 billion, a PE ratio of 96.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 4.10, a quick ratio of 4.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The business has a fifty day moving average of $130.73 and a 200-day moving average of $128.27. Welltower has a 52 week low of $85.40 and a 52 week high of $148.50.

Welltower (NYSE:WELL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.73. Welltower had a return on equity of 3.20% and a net margin of 12.22%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Welltower will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on WELL shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised Welltower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $132.00 to $147.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Welltower from $142.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James increased their price objective on Welltower from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Welltower from $136.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Welltower from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.96.

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.