Lots of people like to use the income from stocks and funds to help meet their monthly outgoings. In this article we look to help with the process of selecting appropriate investments by examining the range of UK stocks, funds and investment trusts paying monthly or quarterly dividends.

Bearing in mind the need to avoid concentrating too much on one area of the market, taking a judicious approach it should be possible for most investors to build a portfolio of relatively high-yielding assets.

A STEADY MONTHLY INCOME

To the best of our knowledge there are no individual UK stocks paying a monthly dividend, although we are happy to be corrected.

However, there are several open-ended funds and closed-end investment trusts paying monthly dividends, so we have compiled a list of the top 10 highest-yielders making sure they have assets of more than £100 million to avoid any issues with liquidity.

Top of the list with an 8.8% yield, before charges and tax, is the NB Global Monthly Income Fund (NBMI) which is managed by Neuberger Berman.

Like the bulk of monthly dividend payers, NB Global Monthly Income invests in credit, including corporate loans, across traditional, alternative and private markets.

The fund has market value of £159 million, trades at around a 10% discount to NAV (net asset value) and is diversified across sectors to give it a low correlation with traditional assets while accessing above-market yields.

In the 12 months to 21 February, it has paid out 6.8p, which with the shares currently trading at 74p puts it on an historic yield of 9.2%.

The TwentyFour Select Monthly Income Fund (SMIF) also invests in credit, has a market value of £186 million and is currently trading on an historic yield of 8.4%.

Unlike the Neuberger Berman fund, which invests in short-term, non-investment grade credit, TwentyFour Select invests mostly in medium-term credit with a rating of B or better from well-known issuers like Nationwide Building Society.

COMPANY DIVIDEND ‘HEROES’

While there are no stocks paying monthly dividends, we have found a dozen which pay quarterly dividends.

Half are members of the FTSE 100 index, which means liquidity isn’t an issue, while one is in the FTSE 250 mid-cap index and the remaining five are listed on the AIM market with varying degrees of daily liquidity.

Top of the list are tobacco firms British American Tobacco (BATS) and Imperial Brands (IMB), which both yield around 7% on an historic basis.

Yields tail off quickly, however, especially since oil giants BP (BP.) and Shell (SHEL) decided to ‘rebase’ their payouts during the pandemic.

The standout is independent natural gas company Diversified Energy (DEC) which is trading on an historic yield of 12%.

Operating in the Appalachian Basin and the central US states of Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, the firm looks to acquire and manage low-risk, low-cost, long-life gas-producing assets.

‘Protecting our cash flow and, in turn, our dividend and debt payments have always been core to our strategy’, says chief executive Rusty Hutson Jr.

Investors should get a steer on the outlook for 2023 when the firm releases its full-year results on 21 March.

PLENTY OF CHOICE IN FUNDS AND TRUSTS

There are plenty of open-ended funds and trusts paying quarterly dividends, although they differ greatly in which assets they tend to own.

Many of the highest-yielding trusts for example invest in property which, as an illiquid, long-dated asset, is much better suited to the closed-end structure and ‘permanent’ pool of capital of a trust than the open-ended structure of a fund, which has to sell assets if it gets redemptions.

Most funds on the other hand own liquid assets such as high-yielding bonds or stocks which they can sell in an instant if they need to raise cash.

Interestingly, two of the highest-yielding funds – the Baillie Gifford Emerging Markets Bond Fund (B7MCJT4) and Schroder Asian Income Maximiser (B581S49) – are both tilted towards emerging markets, where profit and the level of dividends relative to that profit are rising faster than in developed markets.

THE ROUTE TO SUCCESS

We should say that although a typical inspiration for looking at monthly and quarterly income payers is to boost post-tax incomes in retirement, there is a strong argument for investors of all ages owning them as part of a well-diversified portfolio.

With inflation looking like it may have peaked but with interest rates likely to stay high for some time, holding high-income assets is a good way to build wealth.

Moreover, by reinvesting these high yields and buying more shares you are putting the magic of compounding to work as each month or quarter you are increasing your shareholding, which means more income, which in turn means more shares, and so on.

To quote Josh Peters, editor of the Morningstar Dividend Investor monthly letter and author of ‘The Ultimate Dividend Playbook’, dividends may not be the only path for an individual investor’s success, but if there’s a better one, we have yet to find it.

Disclaimer: The author owns shares in NB Global Monthly Income, and TwentyFour Monthly Select Income

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