Alpine Global Premier Properties Fund Offers 8.8% Dividend Yield (AWP)

The Alpine Global Premier Properties Fund (NYSE: AWP) offers an 8.8% dividend yield and has had one-year asset appreciation of nearly 30%.

After its inception in 2007, the fund’s annual dividend distribution amount varied each of the first five years. However, after 2012, the annual dividend payout settled, and the fund has been paying a steady $0.60 annual dividend for the past seven years.

The fund will pay its next dividend distribution on January 31, to all its shareholders of record before the January 23, 2018, ex-dividend date.

Alpine Global Premier Properties Fund (NYSE:AWP)

The Alpine Global Premier Properties Fund’s primary focus is to invest in issuers that are principally engaged in the real estate industry or real estate financing which controls significant real estate assets. Fund managers seek companies in countries which benefit from the economic and demographic drivers of demand, as well as constraints on potential competition from new supply.

As of November 30, 2017, the fund had more than $625.2 million in total assets invested across 99 holdings. Almost 93% of total assets were in common stocks and the remaining assets were in cash and cash equivalents. The fund invested more than 40% of its total assets in U.S.-based holdings. Japan-based holding represented 15.28% of total assets, with Germany at 8.82%, Spain at 7.15% and France at 6.56% rounding out the top five asset countries. The remaining 22% of total assets were spread across equities in Ireland, India, Mexico, China and the United Kingdom.

The top three sectors — residential properties with 29.22%, diversified properties with 22.82% and retail properties with 11.25% asset allocation — accounted for nearly two-thirds of the fund’s total assets. The investments in the remaining third of total assets included equities from various other sectors, including lodging, industrials and offices, as well as mortgage and finance. No single holding accounted for more than 4% of total assets and the top five holdings — Colony NorthStar, Inc. Class A; Sumitomo Realty & Development Co., Ltd.; Starwood Property Trust, Inc.; Equinix, Inc.; and ADO Properties SA — accounted for less than 15% of total assets combined. Even the top ten holdings combined accounted for less than one quarter of total assets, which indicates a relatively well diversified portfolio of holdings within the Alpine Global Premier Properties Fund

The fund’s current $0.05 monthly dividend converts to a $0.60 annualized dividend distribution per share and a yield of 8.8%. This 8.8% dividend yield is 122% higher than the average yields of all the companies in the Financial sector. As indicated above, the fund has paid the same $0.60 annual dividend over the past seven years.

The fund’s share price dropped marginally over the first two weeks of the current trailing 12-month period towards its 52-week low of $5.22, which it reached on January 20, 2017. After the January low, the share price rose almost 31% with minimal volatility over the following nine-month period. The share price ended that nine-month growth surge on October 20, 2017 at $6.86, which was the new 52-week high and the highest share price level in more than two years.

After peaking in October 2017, the share price pulled back almost 10% in less than 30 days. However, the share price recovered completely and closed on January 5, 2018, at $6.82, which is less than 1% below the 52-week high from October 2017. Additionally, the January 5, 2018, closing price was 29.7% higher than it was one year earlier and 30.7% higher than the 52-week low from January 2017.

Prior to the current uptrend, the share price experienced a 44% drop between May 2013 and November 2016. Because of that share price decline, the fund’s 31% five-year total return is 30% lower and the 21.3% three-year total return is less than half the current one-year total return of 47%.

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