Real estate investment trusts that own mortgage debt are considered riskier than REITs that own property.
But there is a way to own mortgage REITs without taking on too much interest-rate risk, says Brad Thomas, chief analyst at iREIT Investor.
“I do own a handful of commercial mortgage REITs and I have recommended a few mREIT preferred shares in my newsletter,”
he writes in a blog post for Seeking Alpha. “The preferreds selected are focused on primarily agency securities and commercial real estate loans, the REITs are well established, have strong management and have neither discontinued the equity dividend nor adjusted the stock price in reaction to market events.”
He cautions that mortgage REITs can lose value because of the way they use borrowed money to boost returns. That can also magnify losses the same way that buying stocks on margin may lead to magnified losses.
“It is the beneficial use of borrowing money that magnifies returns (leverage) and that is the reason that spreads for mortgage REITs are wider and dividends are much higher (than
equity REITs),” Thomas writes. “To put in bluntly, as I have often argued, mortgage REITs do not belong in a retirement portfolio.”
5 Preferred Mortgage REITs
1. Annaly Capital Management (NLYpD)
2. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Inc. (ARIpA)
3. Capstead Mortgage Corp. (CMOpE)
4. Colony Capital Inc. (CNLYpA)
5. MFA Financial Inc. (MFO)
“The preferreds selected are focused on primarily agency securities and commercial real estate loans, the REITs are well established, have strong management and have neither discontinued the equity dividend nor adjusted the stock price in reaction to market events,” according to Thomas. “An investor can pick up an extra one percent by buying some of these mortgage REIT preferreds. As a result, mortgage REIT preferreds often make sense to add to income portfolios.”
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