10 Dividend Stocks That Cut You a Check Each Month

Dividends are one of the best parts of investing. You get to buy a stock, do nothing, and sit back and collect checks. Most dividend-paying stocks send out checks every quarter, but a few pay you every month. This allows you to capture more of the time value of money, and if you’re using dividends to keep up with monthly bills like rent, a mortgage, or utilities, you can directly apply the dividends to those expenses. Stocks that pay you every month are rare and tend to be concentrated in real estate investment trusts, financials, energy, and utilities, but here’s a list of 10 to get you started.

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If you’re bullish on New York real estate coming back and you like monthly dividends, then SL Green Realty (NYSE: SLG) is the stock for you. SL Green is a real estate investment trust, or REIT, meaning it’s bound to pay out at least 90% of its income as dividends, and it’s Manhattan’s largest office landlord. As you might expect, the stock got hammered during the pandemic due to the office exodus and it’s still trading below prepandemic levels. However, that’s good news for dividend investors as the company currently offers a dividend yield of 5.1%.

Despite the remote work trend, SL Green is not as risky as it might seem. Most office contracts last for 10 years, so the company is still collecting rent even if those offices aren’t being used, and even if tenants don’t come back, those buildings can be repurposed as residential or multiuse facilities as Manhattan real estate is still valuable.

In its most recent quarter, the company managed to post that its funds from operations were $1.60 per share even with the headwinds in office real estate. SL Green has also increased its dividends for 10 years in a row, meaning investors can expect those payments to grow.

ALSO READ: 3 Dividend Kings That Belong in Every Retirement Portfolio

Like SL Green, EPR Properties (NYSE: EPR) is a REIT involved in an industry that’s been hit hard by the pandemic, in this case movie theaters. EPR specializes in experiential real estate such as movie theaters, water parks, Topgolf, and ski resorts. The stock is still trading about 30% below its prepandemic levels, which makes sense because box office sales are still down by roughly two-thirds.

The good news for prospective investors is that those challenges mean that the stock pays a 6.1% dividend yield at the moment, and the experiential part of the company’s portfolio is likely to do well even if movie theaters continue to struggle. If theaters do bounce back, investors will capture both those gains in the stock and today’s juicy dividend yield.

Few industries are as safe and reliable as utilities. Many of these companies operate as regulated monopolies, and they’re selling essential services like water and electricity. That means that demand and price are often locked in.

Global Water Resources (NASDAQ: GWRS) is a water utility operating mostly in metropolitan Phoenix, serving 66,000 customers and offering a dividend yield of 1.6%.

As a stock, the company has done well since its debut five years ago, more than doubling in that time, and it benefits from operating in a fast-growing part of the country where water has historically been scarce. Both those factors should help support customer and price growth over the coming years.

It’s hard to find a more reliable monthly dividend payer than Realty Income (NYSE: O). In fact, the company even calls itself the Monthly Dividend Company.

Realty Income is a REIT with more than 6,500 commercial properties with tenants such as 7-Eleven, Dollar General, and Walgreens, and its mission is to provide shareholders with dependable monthly income. The company has increased its dividend 109 times since it went public in 1994, making it the only monthly dividend payer that’s also a Dividend Aristocrat.

Today, Realty income offers a 4.4% dividend yield.

ALSO READ: 3 Top Dividend Stocks Yielding More Than 4%

If you’re looking for high yields from your monthly dividend stocks, there’s no better choice than Ellington Financial (NYSE: EFC). Ellington is an asset management company that acquires residential mortgage-backed securities in addition to offering consumer loans and other financial services.

After diving in the initial stages of the pandemic, the stock has bounced back, riding the surge in the housing market, and now offers a dividend yield of 9.8%.

While the stock has underperformed over the past decade, it’s hard to pass up a dividend yield, especially one that pays out every month.

5 Winning Stocks Under $49
We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

Pipeline stocks are another great source of dividends as the midstream segment of the energy sector tends to be less volatile than others like upstream exploration, which is more dependent on oil prices.

Pembina Pipeline (NYSE: PBA), a Canadian company, facilitates the transportation of 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent every day, and also provides ground storage and rail transportation of oil and gas.

As a dividend payer, the company offers an attractive yield of 6.4%, partly because the stock is still down from prepandemic levels. Pembina is also a reliable stock for dividend growth as it’s raised its monthly payout for five years in a row.

You might be surprised to find a renewable energy stock on this list, but if you’re looking for monthly dividends and are partial to ESG stocks, TransAlta Renewables (OTC: TRSWF) is a good fit.

The Canadian company does own a handful of natural gas facilities, but most of its portfolio is made up of renewable projects like wind, solar, and hydroelectric. Additionally, its exposure to renewable energy gives the company more growth than you’ll find in a typical monthly dividend payer.

Currently, the stock offers a 5% dividend yield.

ALSO READ: 3 Dividend Stocks to Buy in a Market Crash

Telecom companies are known for being great income stocks, but it’s rare to find one that is a monthly dividend payer. Shaw Communications (NYSE: SJR), however, does cut investors a monthly check.

The Canadian telecom was attractive enough that its larger competitor Rogers Communications is buying the company out, though the merger has yet to be fully approved by regulators.

Assuming the acquisition goes through, investors will lose out on the monthly dividend but get the 3.4% dividend yield from Rogers on a quarterly basis. At the moment, Shaw offers a 3.3% yield.

Itau Unibanco Holding (NYSE: ITUB) may be the largest monthly dividend-paying stock, as the Brazilian bank has a market cap of more than $50 billion.

In addition to operating as a commercial bank, the company has an investment banking division and also sells insurance products.

With a dividend yield of 2.1%, Itau Unibanco isn’t the highest-yielding monthly dividend stock, but it’s more secure than some other monthly dividend payers, and if you’re looking for exposure to an emerging market like Brazil, it could be a good fit.

Gladstone offers a number of different monthly dividend stocks under different names, but Gladstone Commercial (NYSE: GOOD) is the highest-yielding one with a dividend yield of 7.1%.

Gladstone Commercial focuses on industrial and office properties in the U.S. and has 121 properties leased to 106 tenants with an occupancy rate of 96.5%.

The company has grown steadily since its IPO in 2003 and has paid a dividend every month for more than 15 years.

5 Winning Stocks Under $49
We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

As you can see from this list above, most monthly dividend stocks aren’t household names or blue chip stocks. In fact, many of these stocks are small caps and your choices are limited to just a few sectors. Even for the most committed dividend investors, it’s worth diversifying your portfolio with income stocks from other sectors, like healthcare, that may not be available as monthly payers.

While investors looking for frequent income may want to choose a few of these stocks to supplement their income, a good dividend strategy should pull from the broader stock market as well, rather than just the 50 or so monthly dividend payers available to U.S. investors.

Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends EPR Properties, PEMBINA PIPELINE CORPORATION, and ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS INC. CL B NV. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.