A Yield to Caution

Article Excerpt

ALARIS EQUITY PARTNERS INCOME TRUST $19 (Toronto symbol AD.UN; Shares outstanding: 45.5 million; Market cap: $864.5 million; Dividend yield: 7.2%) lends money to its partners—private businesses—in exchange for distributions, dividends or interest. Its goal is to generate stable cash flows, so it can provide shareholders with dividend payments. Alaris currently collects distributions from about 19 private businesses, which go toward funding its own distributions to investors. Alaris raised its quarterly dividend by 3.0% in January 2023, to $0.34 a share, from $0.33. The shares currently yield a very high 7.2%. That adds investor appeal, but this is a highly volatile, highly leveraged business model. The company’s focus on private businesses makes it difficult to value. It does invest in profitable firms operating in stable industries, but private companies do sometimes become unprofitable with little warning. We don’t recommend Alaris Equity. Equity…