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Investors often look for ways to increase their monthly income in an inflationary environment. One way to accomplish this is by investing in stocks that pay monthly dividends. Dividend payouts can be used for ongoing expenses, such as funding a vacation or a home remodeling project. Investors who don't need immediate income may choose to reinvest monthly dividends to build shares of stock more quickly.

There are 18 real estate investment trusts (REITs) paying monthly dividends. However, not all of them have good performance records. For example, mortgage REIT Orchid Island Capital Inc. (NYSE:ORC) has a 17.22% annual dividend yield, but over the past 52 weeks, it's lost 17.73% of its share price. Orchid wasn't an anomaly. Including the dividend, six other monthly payers also had negative total returns within the past year.

Therefore, investors must choose monthly payers that won't deplete the principal while delivering consistent dividends. Take a look at the four monthly paying REITs with the best total returns over the past 52 weeks:

SL Green Realty Corp. (NYSE:SLG) is a New York City-based office REIT and the largest office building landlord in New York. As of March 31, 2024, SL Green Realty held interests in 57 buildings, totaling 32.4 million square feet.

On April 17, SL Green reported its Q1 2024 operating results. FFO of $3.07 easily beat the consensus estimate of $2.16 and was well above $1.53 per share in Q1 2023. Revenue of $187.9 million beat the estimate of $152.2 million but was below Q1 2023 revenue of $245.8 million.

On April 18, BMO Capital analyst John Kim upgraded SL Green Realty from Market Perform to Outperform and raised the price target from $56 to $58. That was followed by JP Morgan analyst Anthony Paolone, who on April 25 maintained an Underweight position on SL Green but raised the price target from $43 to $44.

SL Green's total return of 111.35% over the past 52 weeks has led all REITs, not just monthly dividend payers. It pays a monthly dividend of $0.25 and the annualized $3.00 dividend yields 5.65%.

However, one caveat about SL Green is that it has cut its dividend twice since December 2022. While that helped it focus on debt reduction and improved the share price, income investors may want to wait until the next dividend is announced before acquiring shares.

Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR) is a Houston-based retail REIT that owns, operates and develops open-air retail centers in fast-growing Sunbelt markets. Whitestone owns 55 properties in Texas and Arizona, including five land parcels for future development. Whitestone's tenants are mostly service-oriented businesses, such as restaurants, health and fitness centers, financial services and grocery stores. At the end of Q1 2024, Whitestone had a 93.6% occupancy rate, up from 92.7% in Q1 2023.

On March 5, Whitestone announced a 3% increase in its monthly dividend from $0.04 to $0.04125 per share. The new annual dividend of $0.495 per share yields 4.02%.

On May 1, Whitestone REIT released its Q1 2024 operating results. FFO of $0.23 missed the consensus estimate of $0.24 and slipped from its $0.24 FFO per share in Q1 2023. Revenue of $37.164 million also missed the estimate of $37.558 million but improved from $35.851 million in Q1 2023. Its full-year 2024 FFO guidance of $0.98-$1.04 per share was in line with the consensus estimate of $1.02.

Whitestone has some exciting recent news. On June 3, MCB Real Estate offered to purchase Whitestone for $700 million or about $14 per share. The stock rose about 2% over the next few days. It recently closed at $13.06

However, on June 10, Whitestone announced its board had rejected that offer, saying it does not represent a fair valuation. On that same day, the Chairperson of the Board, Amy Shih-Hua Feng, purchased 6,100 shares of common Whitestone stock at $13.07 per share.

On June 10, Whitestone declared its next three dividends of $0.04125, payable July 11, Aug. 14 and Sept. 12 to shareholders of record July 5, Aug. 2 and Sept. 4, respectively.

Whitestone has had an admirable 39.52% total return over the past 52 weeks. It pays a monthly dividend of $0.0413 and an annualized $0.495 per share dividend yields 3.79%

Modiv Industrial (NYSE:MDV) is a Reno-based, internally managed diversified REIT with 42 single-tenant net-lease properties totaling 4.5 million square feet across 15 states. It has 38 industrial, three office, and one retail property in a portfolio comprised of 28 tenants. Modiv Industrial was founded in 2015 and had its IPO in February 2022.

Its portfolio has an excellent Weighted Average Lease Term (WALT) of 14 years and includes average annual rental increases of 2.5%. Over the past year, Modiv has disposed of noncore office properties to focus more on an industrial portfolio.

Modiv's total return was 25.51% over the past year. It pays a monthly dividend of $0.0958 and an annualized $1.15 dividend yields 7.62%.

Gladstone Commercial Corporation (NASDAQ:GOOD) is a diversified net-lease Office and Industrial REIT that owns and leases 132 properties to 110 unique tenants. Its occupancy rate was recently 98.9% with a 6.7-year average remaining lease term.

On May 8, Gladstone Commercial announced the acquisition of an industrial property in Warfordsburg, PA. The property is 142,125 square feet on approximately 115 acres. The total purchase price of $11.7 million had a weighted GAAP cap rate of 12.3%.

Over the past 52 weeks, Gladstone Commercial has had a total return of 23.13%. It pays a monthly dividend of $0.10 and an annualized $1.20 dividend yields 8.42%.

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This article 4 Monthly Paying REITs With The Best 52-Week Total Returns originally appeared on Benzinga.com