Ventas (NYSE: VTR)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by analysts at Jefferies Group in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday. They currently have a $78.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $72.00.

The analysts wrote, “Despite the ~13% return since October, we still see long-term value in VTR, given: 1) a high quality portfolio heavily weighted towards private-pay assets, 2) a strong balance sheet with an attractive cost of capital, and 3) a seasoned management team with significant deal experience, positioning VTR for solid long-term growth. As a result, VTR remains one of our top healthcare REIT picks. Raising PT to $78 and maintain our Buy rating.”

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Analysts at BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Ventas from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note to investors on Friday. They now have a $68.00 price target on the stock. Separately, analysts at Macquarie upgraded shares of Ventas from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note to investors on Thursday, February 21st. They now have a $66.00 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at Barclays Capital raised their price target on shares of Ventas from $72.00 to $73.00 in a research note to investors on Tuesday, February 19th. They now have an “equal weight” rating on the stock.

Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, one has given an overweight rating, nine have issued a hold rating, and one has issued a sell rating to the stock. The company currently has a consensus rating of “overweight” and an average target price of $68.80.

Shares of Ventas traded up 0.55% during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $71.17. Ventas has a 52 week low of $53.94 and a 52 week high of $71.13. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently $67.31. The company has a market cap of $20.778 billion and a P/E ratio of 57.36.

Ventas last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 15th. The company reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $660.71 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.71 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.89 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. Ventas has set its FY13 guidance at $3.99-4.07 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Ventas will post $4.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 6th. This is a positive change from Ventas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62.

Ventas, Inc. is a real estate investment trust (REIT) with a portfolio of seniors housing and healthcare properties in the United States and Canada.

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