Ventas dividend: payout, cash cover and yield
Ventas pays $0.52 per quarter. Operating cash flow covered the dividend in the first half of 2026, leaving approximately $143 million before acquisitions and other uses.
How much does Ventas pay shareholders per share?
In February 2026, the quarterly dividend increased to $0.52. Ventas also changed its normalized-FFO definition to exclude all noncash stock compensation. That change adds no cash and does not remove the ownership cost of equity awards.
Dividends grow cautiously in the base case from $2.14 per share in the first period to $2.30 in the third. The current quarterly rate is $0.52, following a rise from $1.92 annually in 2025. The bear case holds at $2.08 before cutting to $1.87, while the bull reaches $2.45.
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FFO per share | 3.50 | 3.14 | 3.26 | 2.82 | 2.65 |
| Normalized FFO per share | 3.48 | 3.19 | 2.99 | 2.99 | 2.90 |
| Dividend per share | 1.92 | 1.80 | 1.80 | 1.80 | 1.80 |
| Dividend / normalized FFO per share | 55.2% | 56.4% | 60.2% | 60.2% | 62.1% |
Does Ventas’s cash cover its dividend?
The dividend also passed a demanding first-half cash check. In the first half of 2026, operating cash flow covered development, redevelopment, other capital spending and common distributions, leaving approximately $143 million before acquisitions and other uses. Operating FAD provides a second check after specified recurring capital expenditure. Neither measure means the acquisition programme funds itself.
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash from operations | 1,646,726 | 1,329,625 | 1,119,873 | 1,120,163 | 1,026,116 |
| − Dividends paid | 860,060 | 740,326 | 723,559 | 720,319 | 686,888 |
| = Operating cash after dividends | 786,666 | 589,299 | 396,314 | 399,844 | 339,228 |
| − Acquisitions | 2,293,769 | 1,925,957 | 6,466 | 446,628 | 1,369,052 |
| − Development and capital spending | 644,615 | 603,846 | 643,005 | 454,069 | 432,969 |
| + Shares issued | 2,454,550 | 1,990,919 | 110,191 | 8,691 | 625,607 |
What this means. The business generated enough cash from daily operations to pay dividends, but it still needed money from selling shares and borrowing to help fund acquisitions and other spending.
What could change Ventas’s dividend?
On July 29, 2026, management guided to normalized FFO of US$3.85–US$3.90 per share, or 8%–10% year-over-year growth. The plan assumes 15%–17% SHOP same-store cash NOI growth, 300 basis points of occupancy growth and 5.0% RevPOR growth in 2026. RevPOR means revenue per occupied room. Management also raised its senior-housing investment target to US$4.5 billion.
What is Ventas’s dividend yield today?
At US$85.86, Ventas trades at 23.3× FFO per share and yields 2.4%. FFO, or funds from operations, rose to US$3.50 per share in 2025 from US$2.65 in 2021, while average diluted shares increased 11.1% in 2025. Leverage improved from 7.2× to 5.2× net debt to EBITDAre; dividend coverage was 66.5% of Operating FAD.
| Today (Oct 19, 2026) | |
|---|---|
| Share price | 85.86 |
| Dividend yield (calculated) | 2.4% |