A portfolio of stocks I've been building since September 3 is named Volio Folio. It will eventually hold 52 dividend dogs. Volio is the fifth portfolio I've built (at a one dividend dog per-week pace) since 2014. Five portfolios = V for Volio.

Today I'm reviewing the second of five real estate stocks striving to be picked to join the Volio folio. This could be the tenth pick for Volio.

That real estate sector includes nine industries all related to real property ownership. Like: general real estate; Real Estate services; and seven varieties of real estate investment trusts, or REITs.

My subject today is a mid-cap retail real estate investment trust, EPR Properties. Their trading ticker symbol is EPR. This is my first report on EPR Properties. Although I selected EPR for my First DOTW portfolio, March 4 2015.

EPR Properties is a real estate investment trust that invests in, develops, and manages properties in the United States and Canada. The company primarily invests in three segments of properties: entertainment, recreation, and education. The entertainment portfolio, which accounts for the largest proportion of total property value and generates approximately half of total revenue, includes theatres, entertainment retail centers, and family entertainment centers. The recreation portfolio consists of ski parks, water parks, and golf courses. The education portfolio comprises public and private schools and early childhood centers.

The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. EPR Properties was founded in 1997 and is based in Kansas City MO.

I use three key data points to gauge dividend-paying equities or funds like EPR Properties (EPR):

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, several other keys will finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest, or not.

Those three basic keys, however, best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money.

EPR Price

EPR's price per share closed at $76.57 yesterday. A year ago its price was $69.74. In the past year, its price rose $6.83 or nearly 9.8%.

Assuming EPR's stock trades in a range of $65.00 to $85.00 this next year, it's recent $76.57. Price could rise by $7.43 and maybe get to $84.00 by early-November, 2020, assuming this past some upward price momentum kicks-in.

EPR Dividends

EPR's latest declared monthly dividend was $0.375, paid October 18th.

That $0.375 M dividend was raised from $0.36 in January and equates to $4.50 annually and yields 5.88% based on yesterday's $76.57 closing price.

EPR Gains?

Adding the $4.50 annual estimated dividend to my $7.43 estimate of EPR Properties's price upside shows an $11.93 potential gross gain, per share, which will be reduced by any costs to trade these shares.

Say we put a little under $1,000.00 today into EPR Properties at its recent $76.57 price, we'd buy 13 shares of EPR.

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale could cost us $0.77 per share.

Subtract that $0.77 brokerage cost from the estimated $11.93 gross estimated gain per share leaves a net gain of $11.16 X 13 shares = $145.08 or a 14.55% net gain on a $995.41 investment.

Therefore, EPR Properties, whose trading ticker symbol is EPR shows a possible 14.55% net gain including a 5.88% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.

The above speculation is based on past year performance. The actual results remain to be seen to learn if EPR Properties is worth your time and money.