Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE"). It has been our policy to declare quarterly dividends to common stockholders so as to comply with applicable provisions of the Code governing REITs. For the fiscal quarters indicated below are the reported high and low sales prices per share of our common stock on the NYSE and the cash dividends paid per common share:

At January 31, 2018, we had 9,384 stockholders of record, and there were 192,786 beneficial holders of our common stock.

Dividends (Distributions)

Distributions with respect to our common stock can be characterized for federal income tax purposes as taxable ordinary dividends, capital gain dividends, nondividend distributions or a combination thereof. Following is the characterization of our annual common stock distributions per share:

HCP common stockholders on October 24, 2016, the record date for the Spin-Off (the “Record Date”), received upon the Spin-Off on October 31, 2016 one share of QCP common stock for every five shares of HCP common stock they held (the “Distributed Shares”) and cash in lieu of fractional shares of QCP. For U.S. federal income tax purposes, HCP reported the fair market value of the QCP common stock distributed per each share of HCP common stock outstanding on the Record Date was $6.17, or $30.85 for each share of QCP common stock. Accordingly, every HCP common stockholder who received a Distributed Share has a tax cost basis of $30.85 per Distributed Share.

On February 1, 2018, we announced that our Board of Directors declared a quarterly common stock cash dividend of $0.37 per share. The common stock dividend will be paid on March 2, 2018 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 15, 2018.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

On January 6, 2017, we issued 12,143 shares of our common stock upon the redemption of 5,283 non-managing member units of our subsidiary, HCPI/Utah, LLC. The shares of our common stock were issued in a private placement to an accredited investor pursuant to Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. We did not receive any cash proceeds from the issuance of shares of our common stock upon redemption of the non-managing member units of HCPI/Utah, LLC, although we did acquire non-managing member units of the subsidiary in exchange for the shares of common stock we issued upon redemption of the units.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

The table below sets forth the information with respect to purchases of our common stock made by or on our behalf during the quarter ended December 31, 2017.

Performance Graph

The graph and table below compare the cumulative total return of HCP, the S&P 500 Index and the Equity REIT Index of NAREIT, from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2017. Total cumulative return is based on a $100 investment in HCP common stock and in each of the indices at the close of trading on December 31, 2012 and assumes quarterly reinvestment of dividends before consideration of income taxes. Stockholder returns over the indicated periods should not be considered indicative of future stock prices or stockholder returns.

COMPARISON OF FIVE-YEAR CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURN

AMONG S&P 500, EQUITY REITS AND HCP, INC.

RATE OF RETURN TREND COMPARISON

JANUARY 1, 2013–DECEMBER 31, 2017

(JANUARY 1, 2013 = $100)

Performance Graph Total Stockholder Return