High-quality dividend stocks are obviously a great option for investors looking for reliable income. And, they're a particularly smart choice for anyone who needs dividend income to cover some or all of the ever-rising costs of living.
The quarterly payment cadence of most dividend stocks, however, isn't always convenient for people who rely on dividend income to pay their monthly bills.
There is an answer, though. While not exactly common, there are several dividend stocks that dish out their payments on a monthly rather than a quarterly basis. Here's a closer look at three of the best of these names.
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1. Realty Income
Realty Income (O 1.17%) is built from the ground up to pay dividends.
It's not a typical company that makes a revenue-bearing product or provides a revenue-bearing service. Rather, Realty Income is a real estate investment trust, or REIT, for short. That just means it owns a portfolio of rent-bearing real estate and passes along the majority of its monthly rent-based profits to shareholders.
There are all sorts of REITs, ranging from apartment complexes to office buildings to hotels. Even by REIT standards, though, this one's a bit unique. See, Realty Income exclusively rents properties to retailers. 7-Eleven, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Tractor Supply are among its top tenants, although no single renter accounts for more than 4% of its revenue, and no sliver of the retail business makes up more than one-tenth of its business.
NYSE: O
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Still, isn't the entire retail industry on the ropes, with (according to Coresight Research) more than 7,300 U.S. storefronts shuttering in 2024?
The statistic is true, but it doesn't tell the whole story. There were also more than 5,900 stores opened in the United States last year. The so-called retail apocalypse is more of a refining of the industry, leaving behind its strongest names -- names that Realty Income clearly serves. As of the end of the second quarter, this REIT's occupancy rate stood at an industry-beating 98.6%, and even during pandemic-crimped 2020, its average occupancy was a healthy 97.9%.
And the strength of its business is evident in the stock's dividend history. Not only has Realty Income paid its monthly dividend like clockwork since the company was launched in 1969, but it has also raised its annualized payout every year for the past 30 years.
Newcomers will be plugging in while the forward-looking dividend yield stands at 5.3%.
2. EPR Properties
Like Realty Income, EPR Properties (EPR 1.52%) is a monthly dividend-paying REIT. The two organizations are similarly aligned, in fact. They're just different enough to justify holding both at the same time. See, EPR Properties' focus is on experiential entertainment. Water parks, movie theaters, ski resorts, casinos, museums, and even schools are all operating within and on its properties.
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It is more cyclically sensitive than Realty Income. But, not nearly as much as you might expect. As of Q2, 99% of its properties were occupied, with an average of 12 years remaining on its current lease agreements, most of which call for its tenants to cover the highly variable costs like taxes, insurance, and maintenance. That's a big reason why (outside of unusually difficult circumstances like the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic fallout from 2007's subprime mortgage meltdown) EPR's dividend payments boast a pretty healthy growth track record. The sizable forward-looking yield of 6.1% only bolsters the bullish case, of course.
You just want to be sure it's not the only dividend payer you own, particularly if you're counting on dividend income to help cover most of your monthly bills.
3. Global X Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF
Finally, add the Global X Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF (QYLD +0.79%) to your list of monthly dividend-paying names to consider.
It's not a conventional company. It's not even a conventional fund, for that matter. Rather, this ETF is designed to monetize its portfolio of stocks that make up the Nasdaq-100 index -- like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple -- by selling covered calls against those positions.
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Calls (or call option contracts) are derivative investments that effectively act as a bet that the underlying stock or index is going to be valued higher at some point in the future. And these derivatives have a defined, market-based value; if you want to make such a bet, you'll need to pay to purchase a particular call option. If you're right, you can then buy that stock in question at a below-market price, or you can simply sell your call contract for a profit.
You don't have to just buy and then sell call options, though. You can first sell them, and then buy them back at a later date at what's hopefully a lower price. Or, if you happen to own shares of the stock in question, you can hand your shares over to the party you sold the call option to. Or, in the best-case scenario, the call options you've sold for cash end up expiring without being used, erasing your liability resulting from selling the call option that's "covered" by your shares of the stock in question.
That's what the Global X fund company does over and over again with the Global X Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF. It's selling calls for cash, effectively using the fund's individual stocks as collateral. Once those call contracts expire, the fund does it again, and again, and again.
And the strategy works pretty well as an income engine. Its average distribution yield for the past 12 months is a hefty 13.6%.
Just make sure you understand what you're getting with such an investment -- its monthly payouts can be rather inconsistent.
QYLD Dividend data by YCharts
And, although a covered call strategy tends to beat the market in sideways or bear markets, an actively applied covered call strategy also tends to underperform in bull markets, since selling calls against your stock holdings often ends up meaning you're handing over these positions while they're rising. In this instance, you'd be trailing the Nasdaq-100 index, which is likely to lead any marketwide bullishness. Sure, you can always buy more of these stocks you've been forced to fork over. If you're doing so in a bull market, however, you're paying a high price for them.
With its double-digit yield, though, this ETF may well be worth it as long as it's not your only monthly income holding.
