There's nothing passive about passive income when it comes to boosting the bottom line in your portfolio. Regular income from investments is a great way to actively pad your personal payroll, and there are some great options to consider now in this down market.
Brilliant is in the eye of the beholder, but it's hard to argue against long records of regular dividend increases and share-price appreciation that together create total return that bests the benchmark S&P 500.
Three that do just that are Prologis (PLD +0.20%), Lowe's Companies (LOW 0.51%), and Crown Castle International (CCI +0.47%). Here's more on these companies, beginning with a look at their 10-year total return and that of the S&P 500.
Prologis is a logistics giant that just keeps growing
Prologis is one of the largest publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the business, with a current market cap of about $104 billion and a worldwide collection of logistics properties that now numbers more than 4,700 and encompasses about a billion square feet.
NYSE: PLD
Key Data Points
That portfolio is about 98% occupied by about 5,800 customers who are a mix of business-to-business and online/retail fulfillment operators. This is a hot sector that even if it cools a bit should still remain profitable, especially as Prologis raises the rents when it can through escalations built into contracts and when leases renew.
The company also is in the process of acquiring its next-largest U.S. competitor, Duke Realty, in a $26 billion deal that will add another 153 million square feet of high-quality logistics space in 19 major domestic markets.
Lowe's is great for DIY types, including investors
There are some pretty good reasons to be high on Lowe's. An iconic brand in an essential business, this blue chip owns nearly 2,200 home improvement and hardware stores with 208 million square feet of retail selling space in the United States and Canada.
Along with Home Depot, Lowe's has dominated this big niche for decades. It's a business that thrived during the pandemic and should remain every bit as essential going forward as it has through economic ups and downs in the past.
NYSE: LOW
Key Data Points
Lowe's also has an enviable record of 48 straight years of dividend increases, which makes it a Dividend Aristocrat that's approaching Dividend King status. That just further commends it as an income stock, and of 20 analysts currently following the stock, 14 give it a "buy", five say "hold," and only calls it a "sell".
Crown Castle International is pushing the 5G edge
Crown Castle International has been at the forefront of the telecommunications revolution for decades, growing into one of the planet's largest owner-operators of cell towers, fiber optic cable, and now small cell nodes.
NYSE: CCI
Key Data Points
This infrastructure REIT says major mobile carriers and other customers continue to drive strong revenue growth in its traditional business but that it also is aggressively growing its network of those small antennas needed to take 5G capabilities deeper into buildings and neighborhoods.
In doing so, the company expects to deliver annual dividend per-share growth of 7% to 8%, which would add to a record of seven straight years of dividend bumps, including annualized increases of 8.5% in the past three years.
Years of growing dividends followed by impressive prospects
The S&P 500 is currently yielding about 1.7%, while Crown Castle, Prologis, and Lowe's are yielding about 3.1%, 2.1%, and 1.6%, respectively. The chart below, meanwhile, shows how much these three companies have raised their dividends over the past 10 years.
PLD Dividend data by YCharts.
Inflation and recession fears have beaten down the market in general, and these three companies were no exceptions, each off about 13% to 18% so far this year. They could be particularly good deals right now.
Past performance is no guarantee of what will happen next, of course, but Prologis, Lowe's, and Crown Castle have long records of share-price growth, dividend payouts, and business acumen in their individual sectors to lend confidence to the notion that they can be reliable sources of passive income and nice total return for years to come.
