California State Teachers Retirement System Sells 7,375 Shares of Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR)

California State Teachers Retirement System lowered its stake in Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR – Get Rating) by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 658,023 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 7,375 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Ventas were worth $26,433,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ventas by 0.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,333,695 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,624,455,000 after buying an additional 258,033 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Ventas by 0.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 29,288,200 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,519,055,000 after buying an additional 242,767 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Ventas by 3.0% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,632,428 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $289,677,000 after buying an additional 161,769 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Ventas by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,566,596 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $223,607,000 after purchasing an additional 29,702 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Ventas by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,993,090 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $246,613,000 after purchasing an additional 131,839 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Ventas from $60.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 23rd. KeyCorp decreased their target price on Ventas from $56.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 1st. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Ventas in a research note on Thursday. They set a “sell” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Ventas from $44.50 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 23rd. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on Ventas from $61.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Friday, December 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $56.27.

Ventas Stock Performance

NYSE:VTR opened at $44.24 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Ventas, Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.33 and a 1 year high of $64.02. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $49.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $45.51. The company has a market cap of $17.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -368.67, a PEG ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.19.

Ventas (NYSE:VTR – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 9th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.11) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.83). The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Ventas had a negative return on equity of 0.45% and a negative net margin of 1.15%. The business’s revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.73 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ventas, Inc. will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ventas Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.07%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 31st. Ventas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -1,500.00%.

Insider Transactions at Ventas

In other news, CEO Debra A. Cafaro sold 32,932 shares of Ventas stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.74, for a total value of $1,736,833.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 863,555 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,543,890.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

About Ventas

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Ventas, Inc engages in the acquisition and ownership of seniors housing and healthcare properties. It operates through the following segments: Triple-Net Leased Properties, Senior Housing Operating Portfolio (SHOP), and Office Operations. The Triple-Net Leased Properties segment invests in and owns senior housing and healthcare properties.