019 has been volatile, but so far into the year, a positive one for income stock investors. If you look at the Vanguard REIT Index Fund (VNQ) you see that 2019 has produced a steady increase in REIT values.  

After a great first nine months of the year, the market is showing signs of strain and fears about an economic slowdown. There is also lingering fear from last year’s fourth-quarter market correction. Investing for dividend growth may be the best path to close out 2019 and into the new year.

Most REITs that regularly increase dividends do so once a year, and then pay the new dividend rate for the next four quarters. The timing of dividend increases is not widely followed, so if you know a bump in the payout rate of a REIT is coming, you can buy shares before the announcement and have a good chance at a nice share price boost when the new rate becomes actual news.

One of my income stock analysis techniques is to develop and maintain a database of REITs that tracks when, during the year, they have historically announced new dividend rates.

Currently, I have about 130 REITs in the database, and out of those, 90 have been increasing their payouts to shareholders.

While these REITs announce new dividend rates once a year, the timing varies. For every month of the year, there are companies that will announce a new rate.

Now is the time to look at the REITs that should increase dividends in November. If you buy shares three to four weeks ahead of the dividend announcement, you will be ahead of the crowd. The higher rate should produce a share price increase. In the worst case, your yield will go up compared to the current percentage quoted.

Here are three REITs that will most likely announce dividend boosts in November.

Acadia Realty Trust (AKR) acquires, redevelops, and manages retail properties in the nation’s most dynamic urban and street-retail corridors, including those in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC, and Boston.

Acadia Realty will announce its third-quarter earnings results at the end of October. The new dividend rate announcement occurs during the first half of November.

For the last six years, the dividend has been bumped up by one cent, which would be a 3.6% increase on the current $0.28 per quarter dividend.

The payment of the new rate starts in January with a December 31st record date. This REIT has also paid a special year-end dividend three out of the last five years.

AKR currently yields 3.9%.

American Assets Trust, Inc. (AAT) owns, operates, acquires and develops retail, office, multifamily and mixed-use properties in high-barrier-to-entry markets in Southern California, Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Texas, and Hawaii.

This REIT has announced a higher dividend at the end of October or in early November of each of the last six years. In 2018 the new dividend was 3.7% higher than the old payout.

It looks like this year’s increase will be about 5%. The next dividend announcement will be around November 1st and has a record date of about December 10th.

The payment will be just before or just after Christmas. AAT currently yields 2.4%.

Kimco Realty Corp (KIM) owns and manages open-air shopping centers. This REIT slashed its dividend in 2009, during the financial crisis, but has increased it every year since then until 2018, when it didn’t announce an increase.

Kimco had increased the dividend by 7% on average for the previous five years, before not announcing an increase in 2018.

The company’s adjusted FFO per share was flat in the first half of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018, so it is uncertain the amount of any increase. The current dividend is just 75% of AFFO/share, so there is plenty of capacity for dividend growth. Kimco announces a new dividend rate at the end of October or in very early November with record and payment dates in January.

KIM currently yields 5.5%.

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Get your hands on my most comprehensive, step-by-step dividend plan yet. In just a few minutes, you will have a 36-month road map that could generate $4,804 (or more!) per month for life. It's the perfect supplement to Social Security and works even if the stock market tanks. Over 6,500 retirement investors have already followed the recommendations I've laid out.

Click here for complete details to start your plan today.

Source: Investors Alley

The need for an ever-increasing amount of data storage is a growth story that appears to have a very long runway. Experts estimate that the “digital universe” will double every two years (that’s a 50-fold increase in a decade).

Enterprise IT, cloud computing and services, the Internet of Things, and autonomous vehicles all require larger and larger amounts of data storage capacity. Data center owning real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a conservative way to play this trend, with potential for high teens, up to 20% annual total returns.

There is a small handful of REITs that specialize in developing and leasing data centers. All these companies are in growth mode and are either acquiring and/or developing new facilities to lease out to a wide range of customers.

The investing public often forgets that this REIT sector is an integral part of the technology industry. Often, they are treated like any other class of REIT. This dichotomy of market focus allows the attentive investor to pick up data center REIT shares on sale when the larger REIT sector goes into a decline.

Multi-year investment returns from the data center companies will be driven by cash flow and dividend growth rates.

Here are three REITs that can put high-teens annual compounding total returns into your portfolio.

Equinix, Inc. (EQIX) is the $37 billion market cap, 800 lb. gorilla of the data center industry. The company converted from corporate tax payer to REIT status at the start of 2015. The company is a colocation and interconnection service provider.

Colocation is a data center facility in which a business can rent space for servers and other computing hardware. Typically, a colocation facility provides the building, cooling, power, bandwidth and physical security while the customer provides servers and storage.

The company’s services currently give 9,800 customers 333,000 interconnects between data centers and world’s digital exchanges. According to the current Investor Overview presentation, Equinix owns 200 data centers in 24 countries, on five continents. This is truly an international company.

Equinix has produced 64 consecutive quarters of revenue growth – the longest growth track record in the S&P500. This results in mid-teen per share cash flow growth.

For 2018 the company forecasts 8% to 11% FFO per share and dividend increases.

The shares currently yield 2.2%.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) is a $26 billion market cap REIT that owns 214 data centers in 13 countries. Digital Realty has 2,300 customers.

Like Equinix, Digital Realty is also a colocation and interconnection services provider. This REIT’s customer list includes some of the largest technology and telecommunications companies. In the top 10 are IBM, Facebook, Oracle, Verizon, LinkedIn, and even Equinix.

According to the current investor presentation, Digital Realty has increased its dividend per share for 14 straight years. Over that period cash flow to pay dividends has grown by a compounding 11.4% per year.

The DLR dividend has grown by 10% plus per year for the last 14 years.

The shares currently yield 4.0%.

CoreSite Realty Corp (COR) is a $4.0 billion market cap REIT that owns 22 data centers in eight strategic U.S. cities. The company’s focus is to provide colocation services to enterprise, network, and cloud services companies.

CoreSite is the high growth, higher risk company out of the three covered here. From 2011 through 2017, FFO per share grew by 23% compounded and the dividend by more than 30% per year.

Future results will cycle from relatively flat to high growth years. The company is currently in a flat growth stretch with management forecasting 4% FFO growth for 2019. That could easily increase back to historic levels with a few new data center investments.

An investment in COR will not be as stable as with the large cap data center REITs. The flip side is the potential for large dividend increases and corresponding share price gains.

The shares currently yield 4.0%.

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Get your hands on my most comprehensive, step-by-step dividend plan yet. In just a few minutes, you will have a 36-month road map that could generate $4,804 (or more!) per month for life. It's the perfect supplement to Social Security and works even if the stock market tanks. Over 6,500 retirement investors have already followed the recommendations I've laid out.

Click here for complete details to start your plan today.

Source: Investors Alley

It was only six months ago that Fed Chairman Jay Powell said that the Fed was “a long way from neutral,” meaning that they were going to keep raising rates.

How times have changed!

In December, the central bank hiked rates and the market threw a fit, and the stock market plunged. Still, the Fed’s economic projections saw them raising rates two more times this year.

Now those plans are out the window. It looks like rates may go unchanged all year. In fact, there are some folks calling for a rate cut. Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s economic advisor, recently said the Fed should jump in and cut rates by 0.5%—immediately.

Investors must understand that we now live in a low-rate world. The old rules of rates swimming up and down between 3% and 6% are gone. Just last week, we got another tame inflation report.

The good news is that for income investors, there are plenty of low-risk ways to profit. Here are two real estate investment trusts, or REITs, that aren’t your garden-variety REIT. Both are ready to ride long-term growth trends. Let me explain….

The REIT Being Powered by Millennials’ Love of Food

The first REIT is Americold Realty Trust(NYSE: COLD). The company is still fairly new to the markets. COLD completed its $834 million IPO in January 2018. The REIT currently yields about 2.6%.

What makesAmericold Realty Trust different is that it’s the largest REIT that’s focused on owning and running temperature-controlled warehouses.

Why is that important? Well, these warehouse are vital to the food industry. COLD owns and operates 156 such warehouses with approximately 928 million refrigerated cubic feet of storage. They now serve more than 2,400 customers worldwide.

Don’t be fooled. The food industry is hardly a no-growth area. A lot more of these warehouses will be needed, and soon. With Millennials embracing online grocery shopping, demand for cold storage facilities is rising.

I want to emphasize the uniqueness of its business. COLD isn’t just a landlord. The firm also provides services that help their customers properly move their products around the supply chain. Here’s an important stat for you to ponder: 96% of all the frozen food that you find in the grocery store comes through some company like Americold. This is potentially a huge market that’s barely been tapped.

The REIT Riding the Data Wave

Sounds boring, right?

The other REIT is American Tower(NYSE: AMT), which is in the cell phone tower business. Tower companies lease the space on their structures to several tenants like wireless carriers and government agencies.

Guess again. Consider that this business has a strong growth component, thanks largely to the coming of 5G wireless networks. These faster, more powerful networks are an absolute necessity for our interconnected world.

The explosive growth in data traffic is driven by two key trends. The first is an expected 50% increase in connected wireless devices by 2021. The second is a major rise in the amount of data consumed per device as users upgrade to new smartphones.

This new tech also includes things like ultra-HD video, augmented reality and connected self-driving cars. And they all consume huge amounts of data, and that means towers.

If you think of the wireless network as a toll road, 5G would have significantly larger lanes for wireless traffic and dramatically higher speed limits than 4G—in both cases 100 times greater.

Each new generation of wireless technology has required a greater level of investment from wireless carriers which closely correlates with tower leasing activity. It is highly likely the adoption of 5G will follow this historical trend.

Now let’s get back to American Tower. The company has over 170,000 tower sites. What I like is the economics of this business. As the company explained to Bloomberg, “single-tenant towers have gross margins of 40% from rentals…two tenants have 74% margins…three tenants have 83% margins.” You can see the benefits of steady growth.

American Tower generates more than half its total revenue here in the U.S., with its customers being all the major wireless carriers. Another big plus I see for American Tower is its vast overseas footprint. This is important because the U.S. does not lead in 5G technologies.

American Tower is also in key emerging markets. For example, AMT has its largest international exposure in India where data usage has been growing 100% per year. Within a few years, I think most of AMT’s revenue will come from outside the U.S.

Latin America has a lot of potential too. There are over 200 million people in the middle class in Latin America. A significant proportion of these consumers are under 40 years old (the heaviest data users). American Tower is a REIT very well positioned to ride the trend of a more interconnected world!

Pay Your Bills for LIFE with These Dividend Stocks

Get your hands on my most comprehensive, step-by-step dividend plan yet. In just a few minutes, you will have a 36-month road map that could generate $4,804 (or more!) per month for life. It's the perfect supplement to Social Security and works even if the stock market tanks. Over 6,500 retirement investors have already followed the recommendations I've laid out.

Click here for complete details to start your plan today.

Source: Investors Alley

Most dividend investors understandably love the idea of an 8% No Withdrawal Portfolio. It’s a simple yet “game changing” idea that you don’t hear much from mainstream pundits and advisors.

Find stocks that pay 7%, 8% or more and you can retire comfortably, living off dividend checks while your initial capital stays intact (or even appreciates).

Now this strategy is a bit more complicated than simply finding 8% yields and buying them. Granted the recent stock market pullback has benefited investors like us because we can snag more dividends for our dollar. Yields are higher overall, and that’s a good thing.

Next we must smartly select the stocks that are going to pay our dividends securely – without tapping their own shares prices to pay us.

An Ideal 11.8% Dividend Payer That “Pivoted” Properly

As I write to you there are 123 stocks (trading on major US exchanges with market caps above $500 million) that yield 8% or more. A holiday basket of these dividends is going to be a mixed bag, however. While some of these stocks will shower you with quarterly (or even monthly) payouts with price appreciation to boot, others will lose some or all of your cash in price depreciation.

Of our 123 candidates, 99 have not delivered 40% total returns over the past five years. And this is the minimum we ask of an 8% payer – dish us our dividend and don’t lose our initial capital!

Granted this “back of the envelope” study is probably a bit harsh. We’re missing a few elite 8% payers that “graduated” to lower yields thanks to good stock performances. Still, the important lesson here is that 8% payout success is challenging (though not impossible, as we’ll see shortly).

Of these 99 high paying under-performers we have 57 “biggest losers.” These stocks have actually lost their investors money over the past five years. In other words, they have delivered their big dividends yet lost as much (or more) in price. Not good!

And remember, the S&P 500 returned 61% over the time period. So while we can expect our steadier strategy may underperform during roaring bull markets, we would expect a business to at least beat your mattress as a total return vehicle.

Exceptions? Sure. Business models can change, and past performance isn’t necessarily a predictor of future results.

For example a subscriber recently wrote in to ask why New Residential Investment (NRZ) declined in price three years ago. Well, NRZ had a completely different portfolio now than it did then. Let me explain.

Mortgage REITs (mREITs) like NRZ typically buy mortgage loans and collect the interest. Their business model prints money when long-term rates are steady or, better yet, declining. When long-term rates drop, these existing mortgages become more valuable (because new loans pay less).

On the other hand, the mREIT gravy train usually derails when rates rise and these mortgage portfolios decline in value. Historically, rising rate environments have been very bad for mREITs and resulted in deadly dividend cuts.

But NRZ has actually doubled its investors’ money and the value of its own portfolio (its book value) in less than three years. Its secret? Rather than buying mortgages, NRZ has been investing in mortgage service rights (MSRs). This is “the right” to collect payments from a borrower. In other words, the firm doesn’t own these loans – it owns the rights to service these loans.

MSRs tend to rise in value when mortgage refinancing slows down. That’s exactly what happened, and this “pivot” has made many retirement riches. Happy NRZ investors have collected double-digit dividends while enjoying price appreciation to the tune of 151% total returns!

An Ideal 11.8% Dividend Payer

NRZ’s success story is, as discussed, more rare than not in 8%-ville. Let’s now call out a couple of popular “losers” that, despite their high current yields, don’t really belong in retirement portfolios.

2 Stocks Yielding Up to 20.1% to Avoid

Fashion retailer Buckle Inc (BKE) has paid 14.7% of its current share price in dividends over the past twelve months (thanks to a $2 “special” payout). But the dividend well might run dry soon.

Buckle’s sales (the blue line below) have been in a slow-motion nosedive for three years, taking earnings (red line) and free cash flow (FCF, in orange) down with them:

Belt Tightens on Buckle’s Payout

Why are sales suffering? The firm’s revenues are drying up with its retail outlets. Buckle must pivot its business model to sell direct to consumers online in order to survive.

These “death of retail” market stresses, predictably, have driven up Buckle’s payout ratios: in the last 12 months, the company paid out more than it earned in dividends (140% of profits, to be precise), along with 123% of FCF.

I don’t like to see payout ratios above 50% from non-REITs, let alone 100%. This dividend has too high a risk of becoming unbuckled to belong in a No Withdrawal Portfolio.

Government Properties Income Trust (GOV) meanwhile is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that frequently pops up on cute recession-proof dividend lists. Most of the company’s income comes from government entities, so it seems like a smart way to potentially tap Uncle Sam for rent checks.

And GOV’s big dividend usually qualifies itself for No Withdrawal consideration. However its recent run-up in yield is actually a bad thing:

The Wrong Kind of Bull Market

Problem is, this “bull market” in yield has happened because GOV’s stock has collapsed! Its share price is down 66% in five years. Even with the supposedly generous payout, GOV investors have the taste of stale government cheese in their mouths:

GOV Investors Down 46% With Dividends

There are a few reasons GOV has been crushed. First, its stated funds from operation (FFO) have been in decline. FFO per share is 24% lower today than it was five years ago, even though the dividend is the same.

Second, GOV may be overstating its FFO. The firm has been accused of conveniently excluding maintenance-related capital expenditures. Can you imagine old government buildings that don’t require any maintenance?

And finally, even if we give GOV the benefit of the doubt, it still seems to be paying cash it doesn’t have. Its annual dividend of $1.72 per share exceeds its trailing twelve-month FFO of $1.54. A more responsible 90% payout ratio (which is OK for a REIT) would mean a reduced dividend closer to $1.38 per share.

But the market is expecting worse, which is why GOV yields a “beyond contrarian” 20.1%. Stay away from this sketchy situation.

Editor's Note: The stock market is way up – and that’s terrible news for us dividend investors. Yields haven’t been this low in decades! But there are still plenty of great opportunities to secure meaningful income if you know where to look. Brett Owens' latest report reveals how you can easily (and safely) rake in 8%+ dividends and never worry about drawing down your capital again. Click here for full details!

Source: Contrarian Outlook

To build momentum from your income stocks going into the new year, consider buying into those REITs that should announce higher dividend rates in the first month of 2019. Each month I publish a list of those real estate investment trusts (REITs) that should announce higher dividend rates in the upcoming months. This knowledge can give you a jump on the rest of investing public, which will be surprised when the positive news is announced.

I maintain a database of about 130 REITs. With it I track current yields, dividend growth rates and when these companies usually announced new dividend rates. Most REITs announce a new dividend rate once a year, and then pay that rate for the next four quarters. Currently about 85 REITs in my database have recent and ongoing histories of dividend growth. Out of that group, higher dividend announcements will come from different REIT companies during almost every month of the year. With the potential of continued Fed interest rate hikes, the prospects of higher dividend payments coming in January will help to offset any share price disruptions resulting from announcements out of the Federal Reserve Board.

My list shows three companies that historically announce higher dividends in January and should do so again this year. Investors will start earning the higher payouts in the new year. But remember, you want to buy shares before the dividend announcement to get the benefit of a share price bump caused by the positive news event.

Here are three REITs expected to raise dividends that you might want to consider:

Apartment Investment and Management (NYSE: AIV) is a mid-cap sized REIT that owns and operates about 140 apartment communities.

About 40% of the company’s properties are in coastal California, with the balance spread across major U.S. metropolitan areas.

Last year, AIV increased its dividend by 5.6%. Cash flow growth has been comparable in 2018, and I forecast an 5% to 6% dividend increase in January.

The new dividend rate announcement will come out in late January with a mid-February ex-dividend date and payment at the end of February.

AIV yields 3.3%.

EPR Properties (NYSE: EPR) focuses its real estate investments in three different business sectors. Primary is the ownership and triple-net leasing of entertainment complexes and multiplex theaters. The second sector is the ownership of golf and ski recreation centers, also triple-net leased. The third sector is the construction, ownership and leasing of private and charter schools.

EPR pays monthly dividends and has grown the dividend rate by an average of 6.3% per year for the last five years.

In 2018 the company was active in both acquisitions and new developments.

The new dividend rate is announced in mid-January, with an end of January record date and mid-February payment. This stock is a long-term recommendation in my Dividend Hunter high-yield investing service.

EPR currently yields 6.2%.

Welltower Inc (NYSE: WELL) is a large cap healthcare sector REIT. The company owns properties concentrated in markets in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The portfolio is divided into three segments consisting of: Seniors housing, post-acute communities, and outpatient medical properties. Triple-net properties include independent living facilities, independent supportive living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, assisted living facilities, care homes with and without nursing, Alzheimer’s/dementia care facilities, long-term/post-acute care facilities and hospitals.

Outpatient medical properties include outpatient medical buildings. Welltower had increased its dividend every year since 2009 but did not change the rate at the beginning of 2017.

To get back on the dividend growth track, I expect a 2.0% to 2.5% increase to be announced in January.

The announcement will come out at the end of the month, with an early February record date and payment around February 20.

The stock yields 4.8%.

Pay Your Bills for LIFE with These Dividend Stocks

Get your hands on my most comprehensive, step-by-step dividend plan yet. In just a few minutes, you will have a 36-month road map that could generate $4,804 (or more!) per month for life. It's the perfect supplement to Social Security and works even if the stock market tanks. Over 6,500 retirement investors have already followed the recommendations I've laid out.

Click here for complete details to start your plan today.

Source: Investors Alley 

Many income investors own shares of the iShares Mortgage Real Estate Capped ETF (NYSE: REM) as a stock market investment that pays a high (just over 10%) current dividend yield. The problem with REM is that it holds a lot of the highly leveraged, dangerous to your wealth, residential mortgage-backed securities, or as they are regularly referred to – MBS REITs.

The REM share price has tumbled over the last two months, dropping by 10% before regaining about half that loss. That drop indicates that for many companies in the fund’s portfolio, higher interest rates and a flat yield curve are a danger to profits and continued dividend payments.

A better option for the high-income focused investor is to build a portfolio from the financially strongest stocks out of the REM holdings list.

According to the tax rules that govern their operation, a REIT can own real estate property or participate in the financing of real estate assets. REITs that focus on owning real estate are referred to as equity REITs, while those that focus on the mortgage side of real estate are called finance REITs.

The finance REIT side of the REIT universe typically carries much higher dividend yields, which are very attractive to income-focused investors. For comparison, REM currently yields 10% while the largest equity REIT ETF, the Vanguard REIT Index Fund (NYSE: VNQ), yields 4.8%.

A significant number (I would hazard a guess of most) of finance REITs employ a business model that involves owning government agency guaranteed MBS and leveraging their MBS portfolios to turn the 4% bond yields paid by these safe MBS into the cash flow to pay a double-digit dividend yield.

Changing interest rates at either the short or long end of the yield curve will eat into one of these company’s cash flow generation ability. If you look at their histories, most are now paying dividends that are much lower than just a few years ago.

For example, consider the case of one of the larger and more popular agency MBS REITs, American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ: AGNC), which yields an attractive 12%. Digging deeper shows the current dividend rate at just 43% the size of the dividend AGNC investors were earning in 2012. Put another way, the AGNC dividend has been cut by more than half over the last 6 years. With the Treasury yield curve continuing to flatten, I would not be surprised by another dividend cut soon.

As a fund that owns a portfolio of 40 different finance REITs, the REM dividend has shrunk from $7.43 per share paid in 2013 to most recent trailing four quarters run rate of $4.41. That is an average 9.2% per year shrinkage of the dividend. Historically, despite the high dividend yield, REM has generated a negative average annual total return. That return is further reduced by the tax bite on the dividends paid. For long-term, income focused investors REM is a fund to avoid.

To build a min-REM portfolio that gives a higher yield and does not destroy principal value, the strategy is to buy those finance REITs that have not been slashing dividend rates because their business models failed to adjust for changing interest rates. Here are five stocks out of the REM holdings that have not reduced dividends in the last five years:

Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: STWD) is a commercial mortgage lender. Starwood has a diverse business which includes a portfolio of commercial mortgages, an energy infrastructure loan business and holdings, a commercial mortgage servicing company and some commercial property investments.

The commercial loan portfolio is all adjustable rate mortgages, which means income will go up in a rising rate environment.

STWD currently yields 8.9%.

Chimera Investment Corporation (NYSE: CIM) aims to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns by investing in a diversified investment portfolio of residential mortgage securities, residential mortgage loans, real estate-related securities and various other asset classes.

The company primarily owns non-investment grade MBS and has not reduced its dividend since early 2012. This is an area of mortgage loans that requires a higher level of analytical skills.

CIM currently yields 10.6%.

MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE: MFA) owns a diversified portfolio of mortgage securities. This is the most traditional agency MBS owning REIT on this list. However, it has avoided the rising interest rate challenges that has resulted in deep dividend cuts from its peer REITs.

The company invests in residential mortgage assets, including Non-Agency MBS, Agency MBS, and residential whole loans.

The MFA dividend has been stable over the last seven years and has not changed for the last five years.

MFA yields 11.2%.

Apollo Commercial Real Est. Finance Inc. (NYSE: ARI) is a real estate investment trust that primarily originates and invests in senior mortgages and mezzanine loans collateralized by commercial real estate throughout the United States and Europe.

Commercial real estate loans typically are adjustable rate, which gives a huge advantage to REITs doing commercial loans compared to those operating in the residential mortgage space.

The ARI dividend has been steady for the last three years. There is potential for dividend growth, and the company will increase the payout when business conditions allow it.

The shares currently yield 9.7%.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE: BXMT) is a pure play originator of commercial real estate mortgages. The company focuses on larger loans, where competition for the business is less fierce.

This REIT’s ace in the hole is the relationship with and management provided by The Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX).

This large cap asset management company uses its resources and contacts to provide great loan leads to the REIT.

BXMT currently yields 7.5%.

Out of the 40 stocks owned by the REM ETF, that is what I found: five that have produced solid five-year returns and no significant reduction in their dividends. With this group, you would have earned more than double the REM total return. More importantly, these give a much higher level of safety to dividend payments going forward.

Starting today you can stop worrying about the market and instead fundamentally transform your income stream from a string of near misses to a steady, reliable flow of income right into your bank account.

We are almost at the end of another year, and I hope your dividend income stream has marched steadily higher throughout 2018.

Tracking your dividend income and managing your portfolio to grow that income makes it easier to go through market corrections like we saw in October.

One bit of assistance I like to provide is to list those real estate investment trusts (REITs) that should announce higher dividend rates in the upcoming months. This knowledge can give you a jump on the rest of investing public, which will be surprised when the positive news is actually announced.

I maintain a database of about 130 REITs. With it I track current yields, dividend growth rates and when these companies usually announced new dividend rates. Most REITs announce a new dividend rate once a year, and then pay that rate for the next four quarters.

Currently about 85 REITs in my database have recent and ongoing histories of dividend growth. Out of that group, higher dividend announcements will happen during almost every month of the year. In the face of market volatility, REIT values have held up reasonably well in 2018.

Related: Buy This 8.4% REIT That’s Raised Dividends Every Quarter

Dividend increases are the best defense against higher market interest rates. Higher dividend announcements may be the catalyst to higher share prices for individual REIT shares.

My list shows several companies that historically announce higher dividends in December and should do so again this year. Investors will start earning the higher payouts in the new year.

Remember, you want to buy shares before the dividend announcement to get the benefit of a share price bump caused by the positive news event.

Here is the list of REITs to consider:

Ventas, Inc. (NYSE: VTR) is a large-cap REIT that owns a portfolio of properties leased by companies providing the full range of healthcare services. Ventas has done very well for investors, growing its dividend at a compounding 8% annual rate since 2001.

For the last three years, revenue and cash flow growth has been a challenge across all healthcare REITs. Ventas has sold some assets and used the proceeds to pay down debt. As a result, the company’s balance sheet is stronger, but normalized FFO per share for the first three quarters of 2018 were down 5% compared to the same period in 2017.

Ventas increased the dividend by 2% last year and has sufficient cash flow coverage to announce a similar increase this year.

The next dividend will be declared on about December 10, with a mid-month ex-dividend date and payment at the end of the year.

VTR yields 5.4%.

CubeSmart (NYSE: CUBE) is a mid-cap sized self-storage properties REIT. This has been a fast growth REIT, with the dividend growing by 158% over the last five years.

Growth in the self-storage space has moderated, but this means a decline to high single digit annual growth from the previous double digit per year rates.

Last year the dividend was increased by 11%, right in the middle of my 10% to 12% forecast. This year I expect the dividend go be raised by 5% to 6%.

The new dividend rate will be announced in mid- December. The stock will go ex-dividend at the end of December with payment in mid-January.

CUBE yields 4.1%.

CoreSite Realty Corp (NYSE: COR) is a data center REIT. Data centers are one of, if not the fastest growing REIT subsector. Over the last year the company increased its dividend by 14%.

Free cash flow out which dividends are paid has grown by 13.6% over the last year.

Over the last couple of years CoreSite has been announcing a higher dividend every other quarter. The last increase two quarters ago increased the payment to investors by 5.1%. Another rate bump of 5% to 8% is due.

The next dividend increase should be announced in early December, with ex-dividend at the end of the month and the dividend will be paid in mid-January.

COR yields 4.4%.

Bonus Recommendation: Douglas Emmett, Inc. (NYSE: DEI) is a regionally focused REIT, owning and operating office and multi-family properties in California and Hawaii. The has a strong focus on developing new properties or redeveloping currently owned properties for higher, better use – and rents.

The DEI dividend has been increased every year since 2011. Last year the payout was increased by 8.7%. The five-year compound dividend growth rate is 9.7%.

The current dividend is just 50% of FFO, with cash flow per share growing by about 5% per year.

I forecast another 8% dividend increase to be announced on about December 8. Ex-dividend will be at the end of December and the payment will be in mid-January.

DEI yields 2.8%.

Starting today you can stop worrying about the market and instead fundamentally transform your income stream from a string of near misses to a steady, reliable flow of income right into your bank account.

It all starts with a simple to use, yet powerful calendar – called the The Monthly Dividend Paycheck Calendar, like the one below, only with more details. It’s kind of like the one you might have on your desk, only this one tells you when you’ll get paid and how much you’ll receive each and every month.

No more guesswork, no more confusion, no more worrying if you did the right thing… just steady paychecks coming like clockwork…

Paychecks currently averaging $3,453.27 every month. That’s money in the bank for you regardless how volatile remains for the rest of the year.

Source: Investors Alley

2018 has been volatile but so far into the year yielded a flat return for income stock investors. If you look at the Vanguard REIT Index Fund (NYSE: VNQ) you see that in 2018 investors have been hot and cold about REITs. Each time the Fed has increased short term rates, REITs have sold off. The result is a sector, including dividends, that is just above breakeven for the past 12 months. Over the same period, the S&P 500 is up over 11%. One way to get capital gains from REITs is to focus on buying those real estate investment trusts that will increase the dividends paid to shareholders.

Most REITs that regularly increase dividends do so once a year, and then pay the new dividend rate for the next four quarters. The timing of dividend increases is not widely followed, so if you know a bump in the payout rate of a REIT is coming soon, you can buy shares before the announcement and have a good chance at a nice share price boost when the new rate becomes actual news.

One of my income stock analysis techniques is to develop and maintain a database of REITs that tracks when during the year they have historically announced new dividend rates.

Currently I have about 130 REITs in the database, and out of those 90 have been increasing their payouts to shareholders.

While these REITs announce new dividend rates once a year, the timing varies. For every month of the year, there are companies that will announce a new rate.

Related: Buy This 8.4% REIT That’s Raised Dividends Every Quarter

Now is the time to look at the REITs that should increase dividends in November.

If you buy shares three to four weeks ahead of the dividend announcement you will be ahead of the crowd. The higher rate should produce a share price increase. In the worst case, your yield will go up compared to the current percentage quoted.

Here are four REITs that will probably announce dividend boosts in November.

Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE: AKR) acquires, redevelops and manages retail properties in the nation’s most dynamic urban and street-retail corridors, including those in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC, and Boston.

Acadia Realty will announce its third quarter earnings results at the end of October. The new dividend rate announcement occurs during the first half of November. For the last five years, the dividend has been bumped up by one cent, which would be a 3.7% increase on the current $0.27 per quarter dividend. Payment of the new rate starts in January with a December 31 record date.

This REIT has also paid a special yearend dividend each of the last three out of the last five years.

AKR currently yields 3.6%.

American Assets Trust, Inc. (NYSE: AAT) owns, operates, acquires and develops retail, office, multifamily and mixed-use properties in high-barrier-to-entry markets in Southern California, Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Texas and Hawaii.

This REIT has announced a higher dividend in November of each of the last five years. In 2017 the new dividend was 3.8% higher than the old payout.

It looks like this year’s increase will be about 5%. The next dividend announcement will be around November 1 and have a record date of about December 10.

The payment will be just before or just after Christmas.

AAT currently yields 2.9%.

Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE: KIM) owns and manages open air shopping centers. This REIT slashed its dividend in 2009, during the financial crisis, but has increased it every year since then.

Kimco has increased the dividend by 7% on average for the last five years, and in 2017 the payout was increased by 4.2%. The company’s adjusted FFO per share was up flat in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017, so this year’s increase will probably be more modest than in the past.

Kimco typically announces a new dividend rate at the end of October or in in very early November with record and payment dates in January.

KIM currently yields 7.1%.

Bonus investment idea:

Kite Realty Group Trust (NYSE: KRG) is engaged in the ownership, operation, acquisition, development and redevelopment of neighborhood and community shopping centers in selected markets in the United States.

Kite was forced to slash its dividend rate during the 2007-2008 recession. The company restarted dividend growth in 2014.

The dividend has been increased by 33% since the first quarter of that year and was boosted by 5% last year.

I forecast a more moderate 3% to 5% increase this year. In recent years, Kite Realty announced a dividend increase in the last week of November, with record and payment dates in January.Pay Your Bills for LIFE with These Dividend Stocks

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Real estate investment trusts (REITs) and their typically high dividend yields are a key part of a payout-powered retirement portfolio that’s built to dish out higher and higher dividends every single year.

The five REITs we’ll discuss today will pay you 4% to 7.3% per year in dividends alone. And this income stream will only grow as time passes, because these firms have growing cash flow streams they must pass on to shareholders in order to keep their privileged REIT status.

REITs may not get much mainstream coverage, but the academics are starting to catch on to these dividend machines. Last year, I pointed you to a study from Wilshire Research that showed “dramatic” results when REITs were added to a retirement portfolio.

Let’s also consider recent research from global benchmarking company CEM Benchmarking that shows publicly traded real estate has no equal in retirement-focused accounts:

Equity REITs Are the Best of the Best

Source: Alexander D. Beath, PhD & Chris Flynn, CFA CEM Benchmarking Inc.

Their important finding: “Listed equity REITs had the highest average net return over the period, averaging 11.4%.”

Ready to retire? Stick with REITs. They’re the best asset class for retirees who, ironically, aren’t invested in them! More from CEM Benchmarking (emphasis mine):

Although they had the highest arithmetic average annual net return of 11.4 percent over the period, listed equity REITs were the least used asset class covered in the study. Allocations to listed equity REITs averaged just 0.6 percent of total assets.

If you’re looking to live off of dividends in your retirement, you must consider REITs. Here are five candidates that pay 4% and up today:

MGM Growth Properties (MGP)
Dividend Yield: 5.8%

MGM Growth Properties (MGP) is a relatively new kid on the block in the REIT world, spun off of MGM Resorts International (MGM) in 2016. This REIT owns seven Las Vegas properties including Mandalay Bay, Luxor and the Mirage; a handful of regional resorts in places such as Atlantic City and Washington, D.C.; and a right-of-first-offer on an MGM property being built in Springfield, Massachusetts.

I like this regional coverage for two reasons:

• It provides diversification against Las Vegas’ inevitable ups and downs.
• It gives MGM and MGP exposure to the eventual boom that I expect to see across the rest of the U.S. as other states begin to legalize sports betting.

I also like what I see in examining MGP’s dividend: The REIT has hiked its payout four times in nine quarters, and the company has done so with a very reasonable payout ratio of just under 80%.

Just remember: The success of gaming stocks and REITs is heavily tied to a strong economy, so all bets are off if America’s current economic boom starts to peter out.

Until then, game on.

MGM Growth Properties’ (MGP) Price Should Follow Its Dividend Higher

Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI)
Dividend Yield: 7.3%

Speaking of the virtues of regional gaming, Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI) is intriguing for its “pop” potential.

GLPI is another spinoff, carved out from Penn National Gaming (PENN) back in 2013. The company owns a few dozen regional casino and gaming properties in 14 states and leases them out on a triple-net basis to the likes of Penn National and Pinnacle Entertainment (PNK). Their six Mississippi properties may get a lift from the state’s new legalized sports betting, too.

Management seems to believe in their own stock, too. Gaming and Leisure Properties enjoyed some aggressive insider buying earlier this year. And Wall Street analysts are high on its growth prospects, too, modeling 7% EPS growth this year followed by a 22% burst in 2019.

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (PEB)
Dividend Yield: 4.1%

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (PEB) is a play on another one of my favorite mega-trends: the “experience economy.”Americans increasingly seem to value experiences more than acquiring a mountain of stuff, and we’re especially seeing this trend play out in the ever-important (and affluent) Millennial generation.

Pebblebrook is a hotel REIT that targets the most important economic class: the rich. The United States’ middle class is shrinking rapidly, meaning you’re either chasing low-income Americans or the well-heeled – and you and I both know which route leads to fatter profits.

Pebblebrook has a tight portfolio of just 28 properties, but most of these house elite properties such as the LaPlaya Beach Resort & Club in Naples, Florida; the Hotel Monaco in Washington, D.C.; and the Hotel Palomar in Los Angeles. There’s some geographic diversity, though PEB’s properties are primarily crowded along the West Coast’s largest cities.

This is a potential turning point for Pebblebrook. This month, the company beat out Blackstone Group LP (BX) to buy up LaSalle Hotel Properties (LHO) for $5.2 billion, which will boost its portfolio of hotel properties to 66 – though the company’s expected to sell at least three LaSalle properties and execute other asset sales to tamp down debt.

This merger is a double-down on the strong U.S. economy. If America keeps it up, Pebblebrook stands to come out smelling like a rose.

Pebblebrook (PEB) Will Try to Spark Growth Through M&A 

CubeSmart (CUBE)
Dividend Yield: 4.0%

Self-storage REIT CubeSmart (CUBE) is a model operator that continues to grow like a weed. It also has been a serial dividend raiser for years, boosting its quarterly payout by 217% over the past five years.

CubeSmart (CUBE): 419% FFO Growth Since 2010

Unsurprisingly, Wall Street has priced it at a premium.

CubeSmart owns 981 self-storage properties across the U.S., providing not just traditional personal storage solutions, but also business, vehicle and boat storage options. That gives it reach.

Demand comes from the very nature of CubeSmart’s business. Self-storage is an “anytime” industry – economic expansions see a greater need for storage as people accumulate more stuff, and economic contractions usher in a greater need for storage as people need to find a place to store their things as they scale back into smaller living quarters.

But what makes CubeSmart the dynamo you see today is a brilliant set of proprietary systems that help manage inventory and maximize space efficiency, as well as a sophisticated rate-increase system to help squeeze out more profits from customers while still retaining them for the long-term.

That’s how the company has more than doubled FFO over the past five years alone, and why analysts continue to project high-single-digit top-line growth over the next few years. That in turn should keep CUBE chugging higher, rain or shine.

Welltower (WELL)
Dividend Yield: 5.2%

Baby Boomer plays will continue to be an investing gold mine for the next decade or more. America’s 65-plus population is expected to explode by 36% by 2025. In the REIT category, we can primarily play the boomers through either healthcare or senior living.

Welltower (WELL) gives us a little bit of both.

You might remember Welltower as Health Care REIT, but the company rebranded in 2015 (and changed its ticker from HCN in 2018), and has widened its focus over the past few years, too.

This monster of a real-estate company owns 1,502 properties. Importantly, 93% of NOI comes from private-pay sources, so Welltower’s success doesn’t hinge on what the government decides to do with programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

The wild card to watch right now is a first-of-its-kind joint venture with top-15 U.S. health system Promedica, which includes a 15-year absolute triple-net master lease.

Under that system, Welltower is expected to generate 67% of net operating income coming from senior housing (under brands such as Sunrise Senior Living and Silverado), 16% from outpatient medical, 10% from long-term post-acute care and 7% from health systems.

Just keep an eye on the dividend: While the payout ratio is perfectly healthy at a little more than 80%, the payout didn’t come up at its normal time earlier this year. The company has one more quarter to keep up its streak of dividend hikes.

Income Investors Are Waiting on Welltower (WELL) 

My Top 2 REIT Buys: Recession and Rate-Proof Landlords for 7.5%+ Yields with 25% Upside

These five REITs are laudable, but they’re not quite elite – not like my two favorite REITs, which are comfortably positioned in recession-proof industries.

They’ll have no problem continuing to raise their rents – and reward their shareholders – no matter what the Fed decides at its next meeting, what President Trump tweets or when the stock market finally takes a breather.

My favorite commercial real estate lender (a 7.7% yielder!) lets us play Monopoly from the convenience of our brokerage accounts. They do all the legwork, building a secure, diversified loan portfolio featuring offices, retail space, hotels and multifamily units.

Management then collects the monthly payments, deposits the checks, and then it sends most of the profits our way as dividends (a legal requirement to have REIT status).

Better still, this firm has also smartly eliminated interest rate risk because it uses floating rates. In fact, it’s actually set up to make more money as interest rates move higher:

More Income as Interest Rates Rise

Another REIT favorite of mine is a 7.5% payer backed by an unstoppable demographic trend that will deliver growing dividends for the next 30 years. Interest rates are no problem for this landlord because it will simply continue raising the rents on its “must have” facilities.

Its founder Ed admitted that, 14 years ago, he had “zero assets, a dream, and a business plan.” Well, his dream and plan were plenty – the visionary entrepreneur parlayed them into more than $6.7 billion in assets!

Right now is the best time yet to “bet on Ed” because his growing base of assets is generating higher and higher cash flows, powering an accelerating dividend:

I love dividend increases because they are proof that management is actually making more money, so it can afford to pay us shareholders more. And an accelerating payout is a flat-out cry for help!

These two REITs are both “best buys” in my 8% No Withdrawal Portfolio – an 8% dividend paying portfolio that lets retirees live on secure payouts alone. Now, as active recommendations for my premium subscribers, it wouldn’t be fair to reveal their names here.

Editor's Note: The stock market is way up – and that’s terrible news for us dividend investors. Yields haven’t been this low in decades! But there are still plenty of great opportunities to secure meaningful income if you know where to look. Brett Owens' latest report reveals how you can easily (and safely) rake in 8%+ dividends and never worry about drawing down your capital again. Click here for full details!

Source: Contrarian Outlook