Updating your Cyclical-Growth Payers: Riocan Real Estate Investment Trust

Article Excerpt

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $20 is a buy. The REIT (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Cyclical-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing sector; Units outstanding: 300.4 million; Market cap: $6.0 billion; Dividend yield: 5.4%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) owns all or part of 191 shopping centres and other properties across Canada, as well as 11 projects under development. Its overall occupancy rate is a high 97.4%. With the March 2023 payment, RioCan raised your monthly distribution by 6.0% to $0.09 a unit from $0.085. The new annual rate of $1.08 yields a high 5.4%. RioCan continues to benefit from its October 2017 strategy to focus on six major urban markets: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Those cities now supply 92% of its rental revenue, up from 76% in 2017. The REIT is also benefitting from the re-opening of restaurants and movie theatres, as well as its expansion into mixed-use (retail, office and residential) projects. In the three months ended March 31, 2023, revenue rose just 1.9%, to…