I'm now looking for a second real estate sector representative for my new Ivy portfolio. 

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.

Today I'm reviewing a mid-cap healthcare facilities REIT, named Medical Properties Trust Inc. Its trading ticker symbol is MPW. 

Medical Properties Trust Inc is a self-advised real estate investment trust. It is engaged in the business of investing in, owning, and leasing healthcare real estate.

MPW's financing model helps facilitate acquisitions and recapitalizations and allows operators of hospitals and other healthcare facilities to unlock the value of their real estate assets to fund facility improvements, technology upgrades and other investments in operations. Facilities include acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and other medical and surgical facilities.

The company is headquartered in Birmingham, AL.

I use three key data points to gauge the value of any dividend equity like Medical Properties Trust Inc: 

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, several other keys will finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest.

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

MPW Price

Medical Properties's price per share closed at $16.50 yesterday. A year ago its price was $12.92. So price rose $3.58 per share last year, or 27.7%. 

Assuming Medical Properties's stock trades in the range of $15 to $20 next year, Medical Properties's recent $16.50 price could move up by $0.50 and grow to $17.00 by early-January, 2020. 

MPW Dividends

Medical Properties's most recent quarterly dividend was $0.25 declared November 15th and paid January 10th. 

That $0.25 quarterly stipend equals an annual payout of $1.00 yielding 6% at yesterday's $16.50 closing price.

Gains For MPW?

Adding the $1.00 annual estimated dividend to my estimated $0.50 annual price upside estimate for Medical Properties Trust Inc shows a $1.50 potential gross annual gain, per share, which will be reduced by costs to trade those shares.  

Just under $1,000.00 invested today at the $16.50 recent price would buy us 60 MPW shares. 

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale costs $0.17 per share.

Subtract that $0.17 brokerage cost from the estimated $0.50 gross annual gain leaves a net gain of $1.33 X 60 shares 

= $79.80

for about 8% net gain on a $990.00 investment.

Therefore, Medical Properties Trust Inc. whose trading ticker symbol is MPW, now shows a possible 8% net gain including a 6.0% dividend yield. 

Thirteen brokers cover this stock:

Three expect MPW stock to "Outperform" peers

Ten say "hold" your MPW shares.

Therefore, you can look at Medical Properties Trust Inc and see it has made money, is making money, and could rise to net a 11% annual gain including that 6% estimated 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 determine if Medical Properties Trust Inc is worth your time and money.