Earn $500 Monthly With These 3 Dividend Stocks

Last year, the Bank of Canada lowered its benchmark interest rates four times. The Canadian central bank could continue its monetary easing initiatives this year. Amid the falling interest rates, investors could look to invest in high-yielding, monthly-paying dividend stocks to earn a stable passive income. An investment of $95,000 invested equally in the following three stocks can generate more than $500 monthly.

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: SRU.UN) owns and operates 195 strategically located properties across the country, with a gross leasable area of 33.5 million square feet. Supported by rising leasing demand and solid execution of lease deals of both old and new properties, the company posted a solid third-quarter performance. During the quarter, the REIT leased 187,000 of free space, thus raising its occupancy rate to 98.5%. Also, it had renewed and extended 88.1% of all leases that matured last year by the end of the third quarter, with healthy rental growth of 8.9%.

Moreover, the company has a solid developmental pipeline, with permissions to develop 58 million square feet of mixed-use properties. Of these, 0.8 million square feet of sites are under construction. Along with these construction activities, leasing vacant spaces and renewing expiring leases at favourable rates could continue to drive its financials in the coming quarters, thus making its future dividend payouts safer. It currently pays a monthly dividend payout of $0.15417/share, with its forward yield standing at an attractive 7.43%.

Extendicare

Another top monthly-paying stock you can buy is Extendicare (TSX: EXE), which offers care and services to Canadian seniors under various brands. It had delivered impressive returns of over 54% last year amid solid quarterly performances and continued expansion of its asset bases through strategic acquisitions. In the recently reported third quarter, its topline and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) grew by 11.3% and 42.4%, respectively.

Solid volume growth, higher prices, healthy performance from managed services, and increased LTC (long-term-care) funding have boosted its financials. Moreover, the company continues to expand its asset base through organic and strategic acquisitions. It is redeveloping an LTC home in St. Catharines, Ontario, replacing the existing 152-bed Class C home with a 256-bed home. Besides, it is also working on acquiring nine LTC homes from Revera, which the company’s management hopes to complete by mid-2025. Given its solid operating performance and healthy growth prospects, the company could continue to drive its financials, thus making its future dividend payouts safer. Meanwhile, Extendicare currently offers a monthly dividend of $0.04/share, translating into a forward dividend yield of 4.7%.

Pizza Pizza Royalty

Pizza Pizza Royalty (TSX: PZA) would be my final pick, given its stable cash flows from the highly franchised restaurant business. The company operates 774 Pizza Pizza and Pizza 73 brand restaurants through franchisees. It collects royalties based on their sales. So, its financials are less prone to rising prices and inflation, thus delivering healthy cash flows. The pizza franchisor also intends to distribute all the available cash flows to its shareholders. However, given the seasonal variations of its business, the company makes equal monthly payments to smoothen out shareholders’ income. It currently pays a monthly dividend of $0.0775/share, translating into a juicy forward yield of 7.13%.

Meanwhile, PZA has been under pressure over the last 12 months amid weak sales. It has reported negative same-store sales in the previous two quarters. The company has blamed the decline in consumer spending amid the challenging macro environment for the sales decline. However, the company expects enhancements to its menu offerings, value proposition, and initiatives to improve its restaurant and digital customer experiences to boost its same-store sales in the coming quarters. Given these growth initiatives, I expect PZA’s future dividend payouts to be safe, making it an excellent buy for income-seeking investors.