If you're rattled by the market's turbulence over the last few days and not sure where to turn for a safe harbor, you aren't alone -- nor are you powerless. Though portfolios everywhere are getting a bit of a haircut, there are still a handful of stocks that just might retain their value and continue paying investors all the while.
In particular, specialty commercial real estate companies have an enduring appeal thanks to their inherently narrow focus and highly reliable cash flows. Let's take a look at a pair of these businesses that are likely to keep operating as effectively as ever -- even if the market's mood is sour.
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1. Alexandria Real Estate Equities
Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE +0.72%) is a quiet giant that few investors have heard of, despite its rock-solid business model that's tucked into a lucrative, enduringly relevant niche. Over the last 12 months, the real estate investment trust (REIT) earned more than $2.2 billion in revenue from its budding empire of laboratory and office spaces that it leases to biopharma businesses, making nearly $1.4 billion in funds from operations (FFO) in the process.
Across its 41.9 million rentable square feet, major life sciences and pharmaceutical tenants like Pfizer, Moderna, and Bristol-Myers Squibb conduct their work, and new spaces are being bought and built every quarter.
Its forward dividend yield of 2.6% puts it above the market's average yield of near 1.4%. More importantly, if the market correction continues and the stock falls, it'll drive the yield up, drawing in new investors seeking the safety of reliable payouts and thereby mitigating the downturn. Over the last 10 years, its dividend has risen by 125%, and there's reason to believe there are more increases ahead.
NYSE: ARE
Key Data Points
Alexandria builds annual rent escalations into 97% of its triple net leases, which means its tenants pay around 3% more each year, in addition to handling all of their own utilities, taxes, insurance, and maintenance. That serves at least as a partial hedge against inflation, and it also means that the company's income will keep increasing regardless of signing any new tenants or building any new rentable spaces.
Plus, 50% of those existing tenants are large-cap biopharma companies, and the weighted-average remaining lease term across all tenants is 7.3 years. So investors can be confident that its tenants are good for the money in the long term, which is yet another pillar supporting Alexandria's safety as a stock.
2. Innovative Industrial Properties
Much like Alexandria Real Estate, Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR +0.45%) is a specialized REIT that owns spaces for growing cannabis. But rather than building fresh areas to rent out to new tenants like Alexandria does, it simply buys property from businesses that need a cash infusion and then rents the space back to them in what's called a sale-leaseback transaction. Sale leasebacks are the company's bread and butter, and they're how it brought in more than $204 million in revenue during 2021 across its 7.9 million rentable square feet.
Because financing is hard to find for cannabis companies due to the federal prohibition on cannabis, Innovative Industrial's capital-raising services are in hot demand -- and as long as the industry continues to grow, that won't change. Its total quarterly revenue in Q1 topped last year's sum by an impressive 50%, and adjusted FFO reached $53.8 million.
The rest of the year is looking even better with $182.9 million of its investments in the first quarter resulting in ownership of six new properties that will soon bear revenue. Each new tenant is obligated to accept a triple net lease structure, complete with annual rent increases.
NYSE: IIPR
Key Data Points
Of course, that almost certainly means more dividend hikes are on the way. In the last 12 months, its payment has risen by an impressive 33%, giving it a forward yield of 5.37%. Furthermore, with a weighted average lease length of 16.6 years, Innovative Industrial Properties won't need to even think about looking for tenants for quite some time, which reduces turnover and helps keep its bottom line secure from erosion.
