Welltower Now Expects FY15 FFO To Increase 5-6%

(RTTNews) - Welltower Inc. (HCN) Friday said it expects 5 to 6 percent increase in FFO guidance for the full year 2015, while it recorded eight percent growth in third-quarter quarter normalized FFO.

For the full year 2015, the company which changed its name from Health Care REIT, Inc.  to Welltower said it now expects normalized FFO in a range of $4.32 to $4.37 per share, while its earlier outlook was in a range of $4.25 to $4.35 per share. Normalized Funds Available for Distribution or FAD projection was narrowed to a range of $3.84 to $3.89 per share from its previous range of $3.83 to $3.93 per share.

On average, 20 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to earn FFO of $4.35 per share on revenue of $3.78 billion. Analysts estimates usually exclude special items.

Projections of net income attributable to the common shareholders for 2015 is also narrowed to a range of $2.52 to $2.57 per share, from $2.47 to $2.57 per share.

For the third-quarter, the company reported net income attributable to the company of $182.043 million, up from $136.255 million a year ago. On a per share basis, earnings were $0.52, up from $0.44 last year. Wall Street

Normalized FFO increased 8 percent to $1.12 per share. Wall Street expected $1.10 per share on revenue of $956.55 million.

The Board declared a cash dividend of $0.86 for the full year 2016, up 4.2 percent.