Updated on September 9th, 2021 by Ben Reynolds
Spreadsheet data updated daily
Real estate investment trusts – or REITs, for short – can be fantastic securities for generating meaningful portfolio income. REITs widely offer higher dividend yields than the average stock.
While the S&P 500 Index on average yields less than 1.5% right now, it is relatively easy to find REITs with dividend yields of 5% or higher.
The following downloadable REIT list contains a comprehensive list of U.S. Real Estate Investment Trusts, along with metrics that matter including:
- Stock price
- Dividend yield
- Market capitalization
- 5-year beta
You can download your free 150+ REIT list (along with important financial metrics like dividend yields and payout ratios) by clicking on the link below:
In addition to the downloadable Excel sheet of all REITs, this article discusses why income investors should pay particularly close attention to this asset class. And, we also include our top 7 REITs today based on expected total returns.
Table Of Contents
In addition to the full downloadable Excel spreadsheet, this article covers our top 7 REITs today, as ranked using expected total returns from The Sure Analysis Research Database.
The table of contents below allows for easy navigation.
How To Use The REIT List To Find Dividend Stock Ideas
REITs give investors the ability to experience the economic benefits associated with real estate ownership without the hassle of being a landlord in the traditional sense.
Because of the monthly rental cashflows generated by REITs, these securities are well-suited to investors that aim to generate income from their investment portfolios. Accordingly, dividend yield will be the primary metric of interest for many REIT investors.
For those unfamiliar with Microsoft Excel, the following images show how to filter for REITs with dividend yields between 5% and 7% using the ‘filter’ function of Excel.
Step 1: Download the Complete REIT Excel Spreadsheet List at the link above.
Step 2: Click on the filter icon at the top of the ‘Dividend Yield’ column in the Complete REIT Excel Spreadsheet List.
Step 3: Use the filter functions ‘Greater Than or Equal To’ and ‘Less Than or Equal To’ along with the numbers 0.05 ad 0.07 to display REITs with dividend yields between 5% and 7%.
This will help to eliminate any REITs with exceptionally high (and perhaps unsustainable) dividend yields.
Also, click on ‘Descending’ at the top of the filter window to list the REITs with the highest dividend yields at the top of the spreadsheet.
Now that you have the tools to identify high-quality REITs, the next section will show some of the benefits of owning this asset class in a diversified investment portfolio.
Why Invest in REITs?
REITs are, by design, a fantastic asset class for investors looking to generate income. Thus, one of the primary benefits of investing in these securities is their high dividend yields.
The currently high dividend yields of REITs is not an isolated occurrence. In fact, this asset class has traded at a higher dividend yield than the S&P 500 for decades.
The high dividend yields of REITs are due to the regulatory implications of doing business as a real estate investment trust. In exchange for listing as a REIT, these trusts must pay out at least 90% of their net income as dividend payments to their unitholders (REITs trade as units, not shares).
Sometimes you will see a payout ratio of less than 90% for a REIT, and that is likely because they are using funds from operations, not net income, in the denominator for REIT payout ratios (more on that later).
REIT Financial Metrics
REITs run unique business models. More than the vast majority of other business types, they are primarily involved in the ownership of long-lived assets. From an accounting perspective, this means that REITs incur significant non-cash depreciation and amortization expenses.
How does this affect the bottom line of REITs?
Depreciation and amortization expenses reduce a company’s net income, which means that sometimes a REIT’s dividend will be higher than its net income, even though its dividends are safe based on cash flow.
To give a better sense of financial performance and dividend safety, REITs eventually developed the financial metric funds from operations, or FFO. Just like earnings, FFO can be reported on a per-unit basis, giving FFO/unit – the rough equivalent of earnings-per-share for a REIT.
FFO is determined by taking net income and adding back various non-cash charges that are seen to artificially impair a REIT’s perceived ability to pay its dividend.
For an example of how FFO is calculated, consider the following net income-to-FFO reconciliation from Realty Income (O), one of the largest and most popular REIT securities.
Source: Realty Income Annual Report
In 2020, net income was $395 million while FFO available to stockholders was above $1.1 billion, a sizable difference between the two metrics. This shows the profound effect that depreciation and amortization can have on the GAAP financial performance of real estate investment trusts.
The Top 7 REITs Today
Below we have ranked our top 7 REITs today based on expected total returns.
Expected total returns are in turn made up from dividend yield, expected growth on a per unit basis, and valuation multiple changes. Expected total return investing takes into account income (dividend yield), growth, and value.
Note that the REITs below have not been vetted for safety. These are high expected total return securities, but they may come with elevated risks. We encourage investors to fully consider the risk/reward profile of these investments.
Top REIT #7: CTO Realty Growth (CTO)
- Expected Total Return: 10.8%
- Dividend Yield: 7.3%
CTO Realty Growth is a diversified real estate investment trust which owns and operates a diversified portfolio of income properties totaling roughly 2.9 million square feet within the United States. CTO also owns a significant 16% interest in Alpine Income Property Trust (PINE). CTO Realty Growth is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida, and has a market cap of $328 million.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on CTO Realty Growth (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below).
Top REIT #6: Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. (OHI)
- Expected Total Return: 11.3%
- Dividend Yield: 7.9%
Omega Healthcare Investors is one of the premier skilled nursing focused healthcare REITs. It also generates about 20% of its annual revenue from senior housing developments. The company’s three main selling points are its financial, portfolio, and management strength. Specifically, Omega is the leader in skilled nursing facilities.
Source: Investor Presentation
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on Omega Healthcare Investors (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below).
Top REIT #5: Americold Realty Trust (COLD)
- Expected Total Return: 11.5%
- Dividend Yield: 2.4%
Americold is the world’s largest publicly traded REIT focused on the ownership, operation, acquisition, and development of temperature-controlled warehouses. The company operates a global network of 246 temperature-controlled warehouses encompassing over 1.4 billion cubic feet, 198 of which are located in North America, 26 in Europe, and the rest in Asia-Pacific and South America.
In addition, Americold holds two minority interests in Brazilian-based joint ventures with SuperFrio and Comfrio, which own 27 and 23 temperature-controlled warehouses, respectively. Americold generates around $2.7 billion in annual revenues and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on Americold Realty Trust (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below).
Top REIT #4: Alpine Income Property Trust Inc. (PINE)
- Expected Total Return: 11.5%
- Dividend Yield: 5.3%
Alpine Income Property Trust is a real estate trust that owns and operates a high-quality portfolio of commercial net lease properties. Its portfolio consists of 71 net leased retail and office properties located in 49 markets in 22 states.
The trust was formed as recently as August of 2019, has no employees, and is externally managed by Alpine Income Property Manager. The manager is owned by the publicly traded trust CTO Realty Growth (CTO), which also owns 22.3% of Alpine’s common stock. Alpine Income Property generates around $26.4 million (current run-rate) in annual rental revenues and is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on Alpine Income Property Trust (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below).
Top REIT #3: Pennymac Mortgage Investment Trust (PMT)
- Expected Total Return: 11.7%
- Dividend Yield: 9.7%
PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust invests in residential mortgage loans and mortgage–related assets. The trust
focuses on creating mortgage–related assets through their correspondent production activities, which includes mortgage
servicing rights.
PennyMac operates as a mortgage real estate investment trust (mREIT). Pennymac has $2.3 billion of equity invested in three
strategies: credit sensitive strategies, interest rate sensitive strategies and correspondent production. The mREIT has a $1.9 billion market cap.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on Pennymac Mortgage Investment Trust (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below).
Top REIT #2: SL Green Realty Corp. (SLG)
- Expected Total Return: 12.7%
- Dividend Yield: 5.1%
SL Green is an integrated REIT that is focused on acquiring, managing, and maximizing the value of Manhattan commercial properties. It is Manhattan’s largest office landlord, and currently has an interest in 77 buildings totaling 35 million square feet.
Source: Investor Presentation
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on SL Green Realty (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below).
Top REIT #1: Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. (IIPR)
- Expected Total Return: 16.2%
- Dividend Yield: 2.3%
Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. is a single-use “specialty REIT” that exclusively focuses on owning properties used for the cultivation and production of marijuana. Because the industry is in the midst of a legal transition, there are constraints on capital available to businesses engaged in the marijuana business.
Innovative Industrial Properties owns 73 properties in 18 states, representing approximately 6.6 million rentable square feet, which were 100% leased with a weighted-average remaining lease term of over 16 years.
Having the fortunate status as the only publicly traded marijuana REIT in the US has led to stunning returns, and growth.
Source: Investor Presentation
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on Innovative Industrial Properties (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below).
Final Thoughts
The REIT Spreadsheet list in this article contains a list of publicly-traded Real Estate Investment Trusts.
However, this database is certainly not the only place to find high-quality dividend stocks trading at fair or better prices.
In fact, one of the best methods to find high-quality dividend stocks is looking for stocks with long histories of steadily rising dividend payments. Companies that have increased their payouts through many market cycles are highly likely to continue doing so for a long time to come.
You can see more high-quality dividend stocks in the following Sure Dividend databases, each based on long streaks of steadily rising dividend payments:
Alternatively, another great place to look for high-quality business is inside the portfolios of highly successful investors. By analyzing the portfolios of legendary investors running multi-billion dollar investment portfolios, we are able to indirectly benefit from their million-dollar research budgets and personal investing expertise.
To that end, Sure Dividend has created the following two articles:
You might also be looking to create a highly customized dividend income stream to pay for life’s expenses.
The following lists provide useful information on high dividend stocks and stocks that pay monthly dividends:
Bonus: Listen to our interview with Brad Thomas on The Sure Investing Podcast about intelligent REIT investing in the below video.
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