Welltower third-quarter profit rises to $0.54 per diluted share and raises outlook

Welltower Inc. (WELL) reported third-quarter 2026 results on Monday in a press release attached to an 8-K filing. Net income was $415 million, and net income attributable to common stockholders was $0.54 per diluted share.

Here's how the company did:

• Net income attributable to common stockholders, per diluted share: $0.54 vs. $0.41 a year earlier
• Total revenues: $3.72 billion vs. $2.69 billion a year earlier
• Normalized FFO per diluted share: $1.67 vs. $1.34 a year earlier

Normalized funds from operations, or normalized FFO, is a supplemental measure the company uses to compare operating performance between periods. It excludes real estate depreciation and gains on property sales, then adjusts for certain other items.

Normalized FFO rose 24.6% to $1.67 per diluted share, from $1.34 a year earlier. Net income attributable to common stockholders was $396.6 million, up from $280.6 million.

Total revenues were $3.72 billion, up from $2.69 billion. Resident fees and services rose to $3.12 billion from $2.06 billion, while rental income fell to $488.6 million from $499.5 million.

Property operating expenses were $2.25 billion, compared with $1.58 billion a year earlier. Depreciation and amortization rose to $706.8 million from $509.8 million.

Interest expense was $192.7 million, up from $162.1 million. Other expenses were $124.7 million, against $44.7 million a year earlier, and impairments were $33.5 million, compared with $3.1 million.

Same-store net operating income, or SSNOI, rose 15.8% across the total portfolio, to $820.0 million from $708.3 million. SSNOI measures property operating income for a consistent group of properties. Acquisitions enter that group five full quarters after they are acquired.

In seniors housing operating properties, SSNOI grew 21.0% to $604.3 million. Same-store revenue in that group rose 9.1% from a year earlier, driven by 320 basis points of average occupancy growth and 5.3% growth in revenue per occupied room, or RevPOR.

Adjusted EBITDA was $1.43 billion, up 35% from $1.06 billion a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, adjusted for items such as stock-based compensation and impairments.

Net debt to Adjusted EBITDA was 3.02 times at Sept. 30, 2026. The company said it had about $9.5 billion of available liquidity, including cash, restricted cash, line of credit capacity and expected proceeds from property sales and loan payoffs.

Investments and dispositions

The company completed $4.1 billion of pro rata gross investments in the quarter, including development funding. Of that, $2.7 billion was seniors housing acquisitions across 43 properties.

Year to date, the company has closed or agreed to close $21.0 billion of pro rata gross investments, excluding development funding. That includes $13.3 billion completed in the nine months ended Sept. 30 and $7.7 billion closed or under contract since quarter end. The filing says investments not yet closed are subject to customary closing conditions.

Dispositions and loan repayments totaled $484 million in the third quarter. For the year, they reached $4.1 billion, including $2.1 billion of outpatient medical dispositions and $1.2 billion of loan repayments.

Total assets were $73.7 billion at Sept. 30, up from $59.5 billion a year earlier. Net debt to consolidated enterprise value was 9.2%.

In July, the company issued C$1.15 billion of senior unsecured notes with a weighted-average coupon of 3.95%. The issue included C$750 million of 3.850% notes due Aug. 15, 2031 and C$400 million of 4.150% notes due Aug. 15, 2033.

Dividend

The board declared a cash dividend of $0.85 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from $0.74 a year earlier. It will be paid Nov. 19 to stockholders of record as of Nov. 10. The filing says this is the company's 222nd consecutive quarterly cash dividend.

Outlook for 2026

The company raised its 2026 guidance for net income attributable to common stockholders to $3.31 to $3.37 per diluted share, from $3.11 to $3.19. Normalized FFO guidance rose to $6.47 to $6.53 per diluted share, from $6.36 to $6.44.

The NAREIT FFO outlook, which follows the definition of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, is $6.07 to $6.13 per diluted share. The prior outlook was $6.21 to $6.29.

The company expects same-store NOI growth of 15.0% to 16.25% for the year. Seniors housing operating properties are expected to grow 20.25% to 21.75%.

General and administrative expenses are expected at $267 million to $272 million, including about $60 million of stock-based compensation. The company expects $1.9 billion of pro rata disposition proceeds over the next twelve months, at a blended yield of 6.5%.

The outlook includes only acquisitions announced or closed to date. It does not include additional investments, dispositions or capital transactions. The company will provide more detail on its conference call on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time.