A Yield to Caution

Article Excerpt

ALARIS EQUITY PARTNERS INCOME TRUST $16 (Toronto symbol AD.UN; Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 45.5 million; Market cap: $728.0 million; Dividend yield: 8.5%) lends money to its partners—private businesses—in exchange for distributions, dividends or interest. Its goal is to generate stable cash flows to provide shareholders with a dividend. Alaris currently collects distributions from 22 private businesses, which go toward funding its own distributions to investors. The company raised its quarterly dividend by 3.0% in January 2023, to $0.34 a share from $0.33. The shares currently yield a very high 8.5%. That adds investor appeal, but this is a highly volatile, highly leveraged business model. The company’s focus on private businesses makes it difficult to value. It does invest in profitable firms operating in stable industries, but private companies do sometimes become unprofitable with little warning. We don’t recommend Alaris Equity. Equity…