When holding stocks for retirement, you want little surprises, decent income, and stable growth that beats inflation to help you to more than maintain your purchasing power. You’d also expect the distribution you receive from the stocks to grow at a pace that exceeds inflation.
Here are some of the best stocks for retirement that meet all of these criteria. These stocks are great considerations for retirees and investors who are looking for low-risk stock holdings for retirement, whether they’re retiring five or 20 years down the road.
Fortis
There’s little uncertainty about Fortis Inc. (TSX:FTS)(NYSE:FTS) because about 97% of its assets are regulated. Fortis has 10 utility operations in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean, which are well diversified: 44% regulated electric assets, 37% regulated transmission assets, and 16% regulated gas assets. Its expansion efforts in the U.S. have led it to generate roughly 64% of its earnings from the country.
The regulated nature of the business makes Fortis’s return on equity fairly predictable. So, management confidently aims for an average dividend growth rate of 6% through 2022.
Fortis is a dividend champion, having increased its dividend per share for 44 consecutive years. You can count on it to increase its dividend for many years to come!
At the recent quotation of about $42.90 per share, Fortis offers a nearly 4% yield for starters and is a reasonable entry point to begin scaling in. Investors can get about 10% long-term total returns from this low-risk investment.
Brookfield Property
Real estate assets are great core investments. Brookfield Property Partners LP. (TSX:BPY.UN)(NASDAQ:BPY) is a gem for income generation in the real estate space.
Although the limited partnership has a short publicly traded history, it actually has a long and successful operating history as a part of Brookfield Asset Management, which is one of the best alternative asset managers in the world with more than a century’s experience. Brookfield Asset Management owns about 69% of Brookfield Property.
By simply purchasing units of Brookfield Property, you’ll be getting exposure to a diversified portfolio of quality real estate assets in the United States, Europe, Australia, Asia, Canada, and Brazil.
Brookfield Property generates stable cash flow from its core office and retail portfolio, which have high occupancies. Additionally, it has plenty of opportunistic investments, including but not limited to multifamily units, student-housing properties, and self-storage properties, for greater total returns.
Brookfield Property is a fabulous buy right now, as it trades at historical lows. (Check out Brookfield Property’s all-time price chart on the NASDAQ instead of the TSX because the business reports in U.S. dollars.)
You can bank on rent increases to help boost Brookfield Property’s distribution for the coming years. Management guides to increase its distribution per unit by 5-8% per year.
At the recent quotation of about US$19 per share, Brookfield Property offers a safe 6.6% yield. Investors can get long-term total returns of at least 11% from an investment today.
Investor takeaway
By buying stocks like Fortis and Brookfield Property, you can expect to generate decent income and that the income will increase over time at a stable pace. Fortis is a reasonable buy at current levels, while Brookfield Property is an absolute steal.
