Ventas (VTR) Competitors

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) and Ventas (NYSE:VTR) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, community ranking, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and media sentiment.

Do analysts recommend AMT or VTR?

American Tower currently has a consensus price target of $229.43, suggesting a potential upside of 9.54%. Ventas has a consensus price target of $72.90, suggesting a potential upside of 7.82%. Given American Tower's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe American Tower is more favorable than Ventas.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Tower	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	3 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.06
Ventas	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.92

Is AMT or VTR a better dividend stock?

American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Ventas pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. American Tower pays out 141.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ventas pays out 1,010.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Tower is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AMT or VTR?

American Tower received 451 more outperform votes than Ventas when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 75.20% of users gave American Tower an outperform vote while only 56.31% of users gave Ventas an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
American Tower	Outperform Votes 1013 75.20%	Underperform Votes 334 24.80%
Ventas	Outperform Votes 562 56.31%	Underperform Votes 436 43.69%

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, AMT or VTR?

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than Ventas. American Tower is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ventas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Tower	$10.13B	9.67	$1.48B	$4.81	43.54
Ventas	$4.92B	6.00	$81.15M	$0.19	355.84

Which has more volatility and risk, AMT or VTR?

American Tower has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ventas has a beta of 1.37, indicating that its share price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is AMT or VTR more profitable?

American Tower has a net margin of 10.05% compared to Ventas' net margin of 1.65%. American Tower's return on equity of 22.01% beat Ventas' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Tower	10.05%	22.01%	3.55%
Ventas	1.65%	0.82%	0.32%

Do institutionals & insiders believe in AMT or VTR?

92.7% of American Tower shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.2% of Ventas shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Tower shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Ventas shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor AMT or VTR?

In the previous week, American Tower had 19 more articles in the media than Ventas. MarketBeat recorded 39 mentions for American Tower and 20 mentions for Ventas. American Tower's average media sentiment score of 1.35 beat Ventas' score of 1.32 indicating that American Tower is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American Tower	33 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Ventas	17 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

American Tower beats Ventas on 17 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.