Interested In Ventas Inc (NYSE:VTR)’s Upcoming US$0.79 Dividend? You Have 2 Days Left

On the 12 July 2018, Ventas Inc (NYSE:VTR) will be paying shareholders an upcoming dividend amount of US$0.79 per share. However, investors must have bought the company’s stock before 29 June 2018 in order to qualify for the payment. That means you have only 2 days left! Investors looking for higher income-generating stocks to add to their portfolio should keep reading, as I take a deeper dive into Ventas’s latest financial data to analyse its dividend attributes. Check out our latest analysis for Ventas

5 checks you should use to assess a dividend stock

When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria:

• Is their annual yield among the top 25% of dividend payers?

• Does it consistently pay out dividends without missing a payment of significantly cutting payout?

• Has dividend per share amount increased over the past?

• Is its earnings sufficient to payout dividend at the current rate?

• Will it have the ability to keep paying its dividends going forward?

NYSE:VTR Historical Dividend Yield June 26th 18

Does Ventas pass our checks?

REITs are a special-case dividend payer. This is because a high percentage of their earnings are required to be paid out as dividends. The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for VTR is 90.01%, which is in-line with most other REIT stocks. Furthermore, analysts are forecasting the payout ratio to exceed earnings going forward, leading to a future of uncertainty around the stability of VTR’s dividend income.

Reliablity is an important factor for dividend stocks, particularly for income investors who want a strong track record of payment and a positive outlook for future payout. VTR has increased its DPS from $2.05 to $3.16 in the past 10 years. It has also been paying out dividend consistently during this time, as you’d expect for a company increasing its dividend levels. These are all positive signs of a great, reliable dividend stock.

Compared to its peers, Ventas has a yield of 5.67%, which is high for REITs stocks.

Next Steps:

With these dividend metrics in mind, I definitely rank Ventas as a strong income stock, and is worth further research for anyone who considers dividends an important part of their portfolio strategy. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, you should always research extensively before deciding whether or not a stock is an appropriate investment for you. I always recommend analysing the company’s fundamentals and underlying business before making an investment decision. There are three fundamental aspects you should look at:

1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for VTR’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for VTR’s outlook.

2. Valuation: What is VTR worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, it’s not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether VTR is currently mispriced by the market.

3. Other Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here.

To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.