The Hammer

Are REITs and Utilities Good Dividend Investments?

Old trader,
Well how many of these reits effectively deployed capital in the last 5 years? Many of their assumptions have been proven overly optimistic and many carry to much leverage to begin with.
As for utilities, there are a few that have strong cashflows and have a reasonable payout ratio in order to handle the heavy cap ex requirements.

Are REITs and Utilities Good Dividend Investments?

Do not understand why you are long these stocks (disclosure) since you say they are rated low in terms freecashflow and star ratings?
It does not make sense.
Problem I have with utilities and reits is that cap ex requirements for utilities usually exceed cash from operations leaving no freecashflow to pay dividends and utilties continually increase debt levels. REITs must pay out 90% of income and leave little if any left over to fund operations. Then reits continually do dilutive stock sales to fund operations or acquisitions.