Ventas Earnings: Senior Housing Same-Store NOI Growth Remains Strong, Driving Company's FFO Growth

No-moat Ventas reported fourth-quarter results that were relatively in line with our expectations, leading us to reaffirm our $70 fair value estimate. Senior housing same-store occupancy improved 80 basis points sequentially to 87.4% while average rental rates increased 4.4% year over year. Combined, Ventas reported same-store revenue growth of 8.3% for the senior housing portfolio, in line with our estimate of 8.6% growth. Same-store operating expenses only increased by 4.8%, leading to same-store net operating income growth of 16.9% that was ahead of our 14.2% estimate. Same-store NOI growth was 1.8% for the medical office portfolio, 3.8% for the life science portfolio, and 3.4% for the triple-net senior housing portfolio. Combined, total company same-store NOI grew 8.4% in the fourth quarter, slightly better than our estimate of 8.0% growth. Ventas reported normalized funds from operations of $0.81 per share, below our $0.83 estimate but 7% higher than the $0.76 figure the company reported in the fourth quarter of 2023.