National Retail Declares Dividend

National Retail Properties, Inc. (NNN - Snapshot Report), a publicly owned equity real estate investment trust (REIT), has recently declared a first quarter 2012 dividend of 38.5 cents per share or $1.54 on an annualized basis. The dividend is payable on February 15, 2012 to shareholders of record as on January 31, 2012.

The company has been paying uninterrupted annual dividends for the last 22 years. A steady dividend payout facilitates the long-term strategy of National Retail to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns to its stockholders. Furthermore, the company is one of only 4 publicly traded REITs and 105 publicly traded companies in the U.S. to have increased annual dividends consecutively for 22 or more years.

Investors looking for high dividend yields are increasingly favoring REITs like National Retail. Solid dividend payouts are arguably the biggest enticement for REIT investors as the U.S. law requires REITs to distribute 90% of their annual taxable income in the form of dividends to shareholders.

Earlier, National Retail had reiterated its fiscal 2011 FFO (funds from operations) guidance at $1.54 to $1.56 per share based on the solid performance from its operating property portfolio, strong balance sheet, and accretive effect from property acquisitions. Funds from operations, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income. For fiscal 2012, National Retail also reaffirmed its FFO guidance of $1.62 to $1.67 per share.

National Retail invests primarily in high-quality properties subject to long-term net leases. As of September 30, 2011, the company owned 1,298 Investment properties in 47 states with a gross leasable area of approximately 15.3 million square feet.

We maintain our long-term Neutral recommendation on National Retail, which currently retains a Zacks #2 Rank that translates into a short-term Buy rating. We also have a Neutral recommendation and a Zacks #3 Rank (short-term Hold rating) for DDR Corp. (DDR - Analyst Report), one of the competitors of National Retail.

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