Ventas, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.45 (NYSE:VTR)

Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 17th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 1st will be given a dividend of 0.45 per share by the real estate investment trust on Thursday, October 17th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 1st.

Ventas has decreased its dividend by an average of 5.6% annually over the last three years. Ventas has a payout ratio of 2,250.0% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect Ventas to earn $3.35 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 53.7%.

Ventas Stock Performance

VTR opened at $63.84 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.58. The company has a market cap of $25.84 billion, a PE ratio of -336.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.36. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $60.01 and a 200-day moving average of $51.78. Ventas has a 52-week low of $39.33 and a 52-week high of $65.64.

Ventas (NYSE:VTR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by ($0.74). Ventas had a negative return on equity of 1.63% and a negative net margin of 3.33%. The company had revenue of $1.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.19 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ventas will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ventas

In other news, CEO Peter J. Bulgarelli sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.99, for a total transaction of $389,940.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 90,795 shares in the company, valued at $5,900,767.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Peter J. Bulgarelli sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.99, for a total value of $389,940.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,900,767.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Peter J. Bulgarelli sold 3,784 shares of Ventas stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.24, for a total value of $209,028.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 104,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,761,255.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 77,065 shares of company stock valued at $4,526,464. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Scotiabank increased their target price on Ventas from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Ventas to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Ventas from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of Ventas from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Ventas from $52.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Three investment 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ventas has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.67.

Ventas Company Profile

Ventas Inc (NYSE: VTR) is a leading S&P 500 real estate investment trust focused on delivering strong, sustainable shareholder returns by enabling exceptional environments that benefit a large and growing aging population. The Company's growth is fueled by its senior housing communities, which provide valuable services to residents and enable them to thrive in supported environments.