1 Magnificent High-Yield Stock Down 30% to Buy and Hold Forever

That's not a great backdrop for dividend investors trying to find high-yield stocks

But if you take your time and do your re, you can still find attractive income opportunities

What is a net lease REIT

Carey is a net lease real estate investment trust (REIT)

That means it generally owns single-tenant perties for which the tenant is responsible for most perty-level expenses

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Net lease REITs tend to be fairly boring and reliable income stocks

The big driver of the is sale/leaseback deals that are more of a financing transaction for the seller

Which is why all three of these stocks are out of favor right now because higher interest rates crimp the fitability of net lease REITs and their ability to ink new deals

Some of that underperformance can be attributed to one simple fact

NNN REIT has increased its dividend annually for 36 years

Realty Income has increased its dividend annually for 30 years

Carey for this reason because it has a lot to offer

NNN data by YCharts What's different W

The first issue to address is the dividend cut, though "dividend reset" is bably a better characterization of the event

Carey made the decision to exit the troubled office sector and sell its office holdings

That move necessitated lowering the dividend because of the size of the office perty segment in its portfolio

It is now focused on industrial, warehouse, and retail perties, all of which are more lucrative perty segments

The company started increasing the dividend again the quarter after the cut and has been increased each quarter since, which is the same pattern as before the reduction

The portfolio is in much better shape today than it was before the office exit

And the industrial and warehouse focus sets W

Carey apart from Realty Income and NNN, which both focus heavily on retail

Carey with one of these two net lease REIT peers could actually make a nice combination that covers a lot of ground

But the big story is that W

Carey's office exit left it with cash to invest in new perties

It has been putting that money to work and that will ly boost growth during the next couple of years

Notably, net lease giant Realty Income's last dividend hike amounted to a year-over-year increase of 0

That's a trend that is ly to continue during the near term as new acquisitions start to generate cash flow

But there's more to the story, because W

Carey tends to build inflation-linked rent escalators into its leases

That further supports growth and sets the company apart from its peers, which aren't as aggressive on this point

Carey because of the cut When investors look at the net lease REIT sector they often default to Realty Income or NNN REIT

That's not a bad thing, but don't overlook the opportunity W

Up until the dividend reset, the company had raised its payout for 24 consecutive years

Carey's relatively strong dividend growth, it could be well worth stepping aboard even for conservative investors once they understand the backstory

Most important, however, is the differentiated perty focus offered by W

Carey, given its emphasis on industrial and warehouse assets

If you are looking at Realty Income or NNN REIT, you might actually want to buy them and add W

Carey, too, to more fully round out your net lease exposure

Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in Realty Income and W

The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Realty Income

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.