Health Care REIT, Inc. - HCN

Health Care REIT, Inc., stock ticker HCN, is a real estate investment trust engaged in senior housing and health care real estate. HCN's portfolio includes senior housing and health care real estate, including senior housing communities, medical office buildings, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient and outpatient medical centers and life science facilities. As of 12/31/10 HCN's portfolio consisted of 683 properties in 41 states. Talk about diversification! If a slow down in real estate occurs in one portion of the United States, HCN's solid portfolio of properties keeps the cash flowing. On 2/28/11, HCN entered into a purchase agreement with FC-GEN and OpCo to acquire 100% of the equity interests of FC-GEN Acquisition Holding. In January 2011, HCN acquired a 95% interest to own and operate eighteen senior housing facilities with 1,454 beds located primarily in CA and TX. In April 2011, HCN completed the acquisition of Genesis Health Care.
HCN pays it's shareholders a healthy $0.71 per share, that is a sweet 5.68% dividend yield, as of today's share price of 50.63. They have paid a dividend since April 29th, 1992. Hypothetically, if you invested $500.00 into HCN today, that's 9.92 shares, and then reinvested your dividends for the next 30 years, with no dividend growth or stock price growth, your HCN holdings would be worth a total of $2,620.48 at 52.04 shares. Additionally, if you decided to stop reinvesting your dividends at year 30, you would receive $37.46 per dividend payment. That is a pretty nice addition to supplement your social security check!
In closing, the aging baby boomer population needs health care and a place to live, this concept will support HCN's future growth. This is HCN's strength! Click here to visit HCN's homepage, as well as here to visit their Investor Relations web page. Check out how many properties HCN owns(See picture below). Ask yourself one question: Will there ever come a time when all of HCN's properties will shut down? This is the key reason why I believe that HCN is an reliable stock to own in one's Roth IRA stock portfolio. This company has a stable cash flow and a superstar balance sheet that should protect against economic downturns. Please watch the video below to learn more about CEO George L. Chapman's take on the health care REIT sector.