CHICAGO (AP) _ Ventas Inc. (VTR) on Thursday reported a key measure of profitability in its fourth quarter. The results beat Wall Street expectations.

The real estate investment trust, based in Chicago, said it had funds from operations of $292.9 million, or 73 cents per share, in the period.

The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for funds from operations of 71 cents per share.

Funds from operations is a closely watched measure in the REIT industry. It takes net income and adds back items such as depreciation and amortization.

The company said it had a loss of $40.9 million, or 10 cents per share.

The seniors housing real estate investment trust, based in Chicago, posted revenue of $1.02 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $972.6 million.

For the year, the company reported funds from operations of $1.12 billion. Revenue was reported as $3.83 billion.

For the current quarter ending in April, Ventas expects its per-share funds from operations to range from 76 cents to 80 cents.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on VTR at https://www.zacks.com/ap/VTR

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