5 Best Dividend Champions to Buy for 2022

4. National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN)

Dividend Yield as of January 20: 4.87%

Number of Years of Dividend Increases: 32

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 21

National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN) is a Florida-based real estate investment trust that rents out long-term leases for high quality establishments. National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN) has had 32 years of consecutive dividend increases. 

Offering a yield of 4.87%, National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN) on January 14 declared a $0.53 per share quarterly dividend, in line with previous. The dividend is payable on February 15, to shareholders of record on January 31.

BofA analyst Joshua Dennerlein on January 20 downgraded National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN) to Underperform from Buy and slashed his price target to $47 from $52 as part of a broader sector note on triple-net REITs. The analyst is updating his models to reflect his view that net lease investors should focus on a mixture of dividend yield and earnings growth.

In the third quarter of 2021, 21 hedge funds were long National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN), with stakes totaling $120 million. Millennium Management is the largest National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN) stakeholder, holding 864,311 shares worth $37.3 million.