Essential Properties Realty Trust hikes dividend by 4.3%

Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. (EPRT) will raise its quarterly dividend by 4.3 percent to 24 cents. This comes after a double dividend hike announced in 2019 for a total increase of 9.5 percent. Two years ago the REIT initiated a quarterly dividend.

The next dividend is payable on January 15, 2021 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on December 31, 2020. A new annual rate of 96 cents yields 4.5% at a stock price of $21.45.

Essential Properties Realty Trust has now raised its annual dividend for two consecutive years. If we include this new dividend hike just announced the company will pay an estimated annual dividend of $100 million to its shareholders.

In the press release announcing the dividend hike EPRT states that as of September 30, 2020, the company’s portfolio consisted of 1,096 freestanding net lease properties with a weighted average lease term of 14.6 years and a weighted average rent coverage ratio of 2.8x. As of the same date, the company’s portfolio was 99.4% leased to 214 tenants operating 300 different concepts in 16 industries across 43 states.

Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. is an internally managed real estate company that acquires, owns and manages primarily single-tenant properties that are net leased on a long-term basis to companies operating service-oriented or experience-based businesses. Essential Properties Realty Trust became a public company in 2018 and paid its first quarterly dividend later that year.