Realty Income on Thursday announced plans to acquire VEREIT, a retail REIT about half of its size. The all-stock transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021. This large acquisition will not impact Realty Income's dividend policy. If anything, the REIT's dividend coverage should improve moderately. Management expects the deal to increase Realty's adjusted [...]

Since announcing in July 2019 plans to spin off its established drug business, Pfizer has communicated it would lower its dividend to reflect its reduced standalone cash flow. However, income investors were expected to be kept whole after accounting for the new dividend to be paid by the spinoff, Viatris. This dividend adjustment was expected to occur [...]

The Biden administration is considering proposals to ban menthol and reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes to non-addictive levels, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. If these policies move forward, they will almost certainly face legal challenges from the tobacco industry and take years to implement. Altria’s short-term outlook arguably has not changed. But the long-term consequences [...]

With vaccine availability increasing and more economies opening up, Coca-Cola on Monday reported that its total sales volumes in March recovered to levels last seen in 2019 prior to the pandemic. The firm's beverage volumes had declined as much as 25% in April 2020 when numerous countries implemented synchronized lockdowns. While trends slowly improved throughout the year, Coke was [...]

In response to economic uncertainty created by the pandemic, the Federal Reserve last year imposed additional capital preservation measures on America's largest banks. Banks with more than $100 billion in assets – including JPMorgan – were restricted from repurchasing shares until early 2021, and their dividends are still not allowed to be increased. Total buybacks [...]