Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Sells 175 Shares of Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC decreased its holdings in Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,716 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 175 shares during the quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Ventas were worth $221,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VTR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Ventas by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 27,557,480 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,767,261,000 after buying an additional 599,600 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Ventas by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,671,227 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,710,426,000 after buying an additional 581,870 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Ventas by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,364,810 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,498,385,000 after buying an additional 982,795 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ventas by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,411,293 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $665,559,000 after buying an additional 245,922 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Ventas by 105.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,420,322 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $347,605,000 after buying an additional 2,778,408 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on VTR. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Ventas from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com raised shares of Ventas from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Ventas from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Ventas from $71.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Ventas from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ventas has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $71.14.

Ventas Stock Up 0.8 %

Ventas stock opened at $69.18 on Friday. Ventas, Inc. has a 1-year low of $41.45 and a 1-year high of $69.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 364.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $62.24.

Ventas (NYSE:VTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.02) by $0.83. Ventas had a net margin of 1.65% and a return on equity of 0.82%. On average, analysts predict that Ventas, Inc. will post 3.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Ventas Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.78%. This is a positive change from Ventas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Ventas’s payout ratio is currently 1,010.53%.

Insider Activity at Ventas

In other news, CAO Gregory R. Liebbe sold 3,866 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total transaction of $243,558.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 11,371 shares in the company, valued at $716,373. The trade was a 25.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Debra A. Cafaro sold 214,679 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.22, for a total transaction of $14,645,401.38. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,138,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,644,115.46. This trade represents a 15.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Ventas

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.