Whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities, all investors love seeing their portfolios score big returns. But when you're an income investor, your primary focus is generating consistent cash flow from each of your liquid investments.

Cash flow can come from bond interest, interest from other types of investments, and of course, dividends. A dividend is the distribution of a company's earnings paid out to shareholders; it's often viewed by its dividend yield, a metric that measures a dividend as a percent of the current stock price. Many academic studies show that dividends make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.

Ventas in Focus

Based in Chicago, Ventas (VTR) is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of 8.95%. The seniors housing real estate investment trust is paying out a dividend of $0.48 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.99% compared to the REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry's yield of 5.33% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.76%.

In terms of dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.92 is up 6.7% from last year. Ventas has increased its dividend 1 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 0.37%. Future dividend growth will depend on earnings growth as well as payout ratio, which is the proportion of a company's annual earnings per share that it pays out as a dividend. Right now, Ventas's payout ratio is 56%, which means it paid out 56% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for VTR for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 is $3.44 per share, representing a year-over-year earnings growth rate of 7.84%.

Bottom Line

Investors like dividends for many reasons; they greatly improve stock investing profits, decrease overall portfolio risk, and carry tax advantages, among others. However, not all companies offer a quarterly payout.

High-growth firms or tech start-ups, for example, rarely provide their shareholders a dividend, while larger, more established companies that have more secure profits are often seen as the best dividend options. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. With that in mind, VTR is a compelling investment opportunity. Not only is it a strong dividend play, but the stock currently sits at a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold).

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Ventas, Inc. (VTR) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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