REITs - or Real Estate Investment Trusts - are corporations that combine the capital of many investors to acquire or provide financing for income-producing real estate. A corporation must meet several requirements in order to qualify as a REIT: among other things, it must have a minimum number of shareholders and widely dispersed share ownership; it must satisfy various asset and income tests; and it must distribute annually at least 90 percent of its taxable income, excluding capital gains, to its shareholders. When a corporation elects REIT status, it is permitted to deduct dividends paid to its shareholders from its federal tax bill.
Healthcare REITs specialize in acquiring and owning healthcare-related properties such as seniors housing communities, medical office buildings, skilled nursing facilities, hospitals and life science laboratory office space. Healthcare REITs typically cannot operate the properties they own and, therefore, do not provide healthcare services.
You can find additional information on the various sectors that comprise the seniors housing and healthcare real estate industries at the following websites:
Funds From Operations (FFO) is a supplemental measure of a REIT’s operating performance. FFO is different from corporate "earnings" as typically reported by other companies. NAREIT defines FFO as net income (computed in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) excluding gains or losses from sales of real estate property, including gain on re-measurement of equity method investments, and impairment write-downs of depreciable real estate, plus real estate depreciation and amortization, and after adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures. FFO and normalized FFO allow investors, analysts and management to compare a REIT’s operating performance between periods and with the operating performance of other REITs without having to account for differences caused by unanticipated items and other events such as transactions and litigation.
Ventas’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "VTR".
Historically, Ventas’s Board of Directors has authorized the payment of a quarterly cash dividend on Ventas common stock. The Board considers many factors when making decisions regarding the nature, frequency and amount of dividends, and Ventas cannot make any assurances that it will maintain the practice of paying regular quarterly dividends in the future.
Yes, Ventas will report dividend income to stockholders and the IRS. For Ventas stock is held in direct registration with the transfer agent or in certificate form, the Form 1099 will be mailed out by the transfer agent. For Ventas stock held in a brokerage account, the Form 1099 will be prepared and mailed out by the broker.
P.O. Box 64874 St. Paul, MN 55164 www.shareowneronline.com +1 800 468 9716
Ventas’s fiscal year ends on December 31st.