As the earnings season is wrapping up, my calendar is looking incredibly full in the best way possible. May and June are shaping up to be great months for my portfolio, with a flood of incoming dividends scheduled to hit my account over the next few weeks.
This also presents a happy problem: Where do we put this money to work?
My Bank Concentration Dilema
If you know me or follow my journal, you know my portfolio is heavily concentrated in the local banking trio. As we saw with the recent blockbuster earnings from DBS and the rest, the banks are absolutely firing on all cylinders.
The catch? They are currently trading at All-Time Highs (ATH).
While I am more than happy to sit back and collect that ~5% yield from my existing bank shares, I am not so keen to be averaging up at these peak valuations, especially given my large existing positions.
I prefer to deploy fresh capital into stocks that are paying a resilient dividend and trading at fairly valued—or ideally, undervalued—market prices.
Finding Value In Parkway Life
With the banks looking expensive, I’ve turned my attention back to the REIT sector.
This week, I added some Parkway Life REIT to the portfolio at exactly $4.00 per share.
Historically, PLife REIT is notoriously known as a "low yielder" because the market charges a massive premium for its incredibly defensive nature (hospitals and nursing homes with extremely long leases). However after taking a look at its recent earnings release, I noticed that PLife currently offers a forward dividend yield of more than 4% at this purchase price of $4.00.
For a REIT of this caliber, securing a 4+% yield is noticeably higher than its historical average. It fits into my strategy of acquiring high-quality, defensive assets at a reasonable valuation while letting the compounding process do its job.
The Macro Elephant In The Room: Why Are REITS Cheaper?
Of course, there is a reason PLife REIT and its peers are trading at more attractive valuations right now, while banks are trading on the more expensive end of things.
If you look at the recent operational updates, REITs in general have actually been posting decent to good earnings. Occupancies remain strong, and rent reversions are largely positive. But the market sentiment has been decoupling from the operational reality.
Sentiments have dimmed significantly over the last few weeks. Why?
- Surging Oil Prices: Geopolitical tensions have driven energy costs back up.
- Sticky Inflation: The narrative that inflation was conquered has been paused.
- Shifting Interest Rates: The market is waking up to the reality of "higher for longer." Expectations for rate cuts this year have evaporated.
When the market gets spooked by sticky interest rates, it indiscriminately sells off yield-generating, rate-sensitive assets like REITs.
My Playbook Moving Forward
As an investor focused on the long term, this disconnect between good earnings and poor market sentiment is exactly where I want to put my money to work.
When I buy certain stocks or REITs now, I am deploying capital into assets that possess structural price supports that limit their downside risks. I am specifically targeting high-quality counters that act as "low-beta" anchors for the portfolio. (Beta measures a stock's volatility compared to the broader market. A low beta means the stock moves less erratically than the index).
One example of what this looks like would be Price Support via Dividend Yields. As mentioned above, Parkway Life REIT is currently sitting at a historically high forward yield of 4.5%. If the price attempts to drop further, the yield spikes higher, instantly attracting institutional buyers and income funds who will bid the price right back up. The yield is the price support.
Another example would be Price Support via Net Asset Value (NAV). I am also looking closely at REITs like FCT, which is currently trading right around its Net Asset Value (NAV) of $2.25 per unit. For high-quality, suburban retail REITs in Singapore, NAV acts as a psychological and fundamental support. The market can be quite reluctant to price a dominant retail portfolio below its actual book value, providing a cushion against downside volatility.
Having some lower-beta positions in my portfolio gives me optionality in a significant market downturn. If the right opportunity presents itself, I would be able to execute a portfolio rotation by selling low-beta positions and plowing the cash into high-beta positions whose prices have fallen further.
The Bottom Line and May 2026 Dividends
At my core I am still a simple dividend investor, and what I want to see most is my cash flow becoming more and more over time. I am always cautious against trading in and out of positions as we can easily make the wrong moves and see our portfolios becoming lesser and lesser instead.
Likewise this potential "capital rotation" might never play out in practice. While NAV can act as a psychological anchor, REITs can and do trade below book value, particularly in prolonged high interest rate environments. Also while higher yields can attract income-focused investors and provide some support, they do not guarantee a price floor, especially if interest rates continue rising or fundamentals deteriorate.
Here's ending off with an update on my incoming dividends for May and June 2026. All Huat !!
| Status | Date | Company |
| ✅ Received | 8 May 2026 | OCBC |
| ✅ Received | 8 May 2026 | UOB |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 13 May 2026 | ComfortDelGro (CDG) |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 14 May 2026 | CapitaLand Investment (CLI) |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 15 May 2026 | Sembcorp |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 15 May 2026 | Riverstone |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 19 May 2026 | YKGI |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 20 May 2026 | DBS |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 26 May 2026 | Genting Singapore |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 29 May 2026 | FCT |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 29 May 2026 | Suntec |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 8 Jun 2026 | CICT (Advance Dist) |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 12 Jun 2026 | MIT |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 23 Jun 2026 | MLT |
| ⏳ Upcoming | 29 Jun 2026 | Aims APAC REIT |
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