Few cannabis stocks are in the position to pay dividends to shareholders, and the entire sector has seen valuations get crushed. For example, the AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (NASDAQ: MSOS) is down 68% for the past 12 months.

Yet, there are a handful of cannabis companies that do pay dividends and for the most part, those disbursements have remained steady. In some cases, the dividends have even increased.

So if valuations have you as down as your portfolio, take heart that some companies have a strong commitment to their dividend game.

Steady dividend payers

Innovative Industrial Properties (NYSE: IIPR) last week announced that its board of directors declared a first-quarter dividend of $1.90 per share of common stock, representing an annualized dividend of $7.60 per common share. In 2023, the company paid roughly $1.80 per share.

Since its inception, IIP has paid more than $885 million in common stock dividends to its shareholders.

“The company has continued to execute, generating over $255 million of cash flow from operations and returning over $210 million to shareholders through dividends, continuing our track record of increasing our annual dividends each year since our inception in 2016,” Executive Chairman Alan Gold said during the company’s latest earnings call.

The announcement came despite ongoing challenges with one of its biggest portfolio holdings, PharmaCann. The two companies had announced an arrangement to address the MSO’s default, but according to a regulatory filing, it looks like PharmaCann hasn’t lived up to its promise to start paying its rent again.

Turning Point Brands (NYSE: TPB) declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.075 per common share at the end of February. This was a 7% increase over the regular quarter dividend declared in November 2024. The company paid $0.07 per share in 2024. The dividend is payable on April 11 to shareholders of record on the close of business on March 21.

The company’s forward annual dividend yield, according to Yahoo Finance, is 0.52%. Alliance Global Partners is keeping its buy rating on the stock and increased its price target from $80 to $85.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. (NYSE: SMG) announced a cash dividend of $0.66 per share at the end of January. Despite the company’s struggles with the Hawthorne hydroponic subsidiary, the company has maintained a steady dividend. It has been paying the 66-cent dividend since 2022 and has a dividend yield of 3.4%.

SMG’s stock is only down 9.7% for the past 12 months, which compared to other cannabis stocks isn’t too disappointing. However, most of the company’s sales are in its home gardening division and not Hawthorne, which it plans to spin off.

Dividend drop

Advanced Flower Capital (NASDAQ: AFCG), which was formerly known as AFC Gamma, reported its earnings last week and told investors the dividend was dropping. The company declared a dividend of $0.33 for the fourth quarter, which was down from last year’s fourth-quarter dividend of $0.48.

InvestingPro reported that data shows, “The company maintains a significant 13.9% dividend yield, although dividend growth has declined by 31.25% over the last 12 months.”

AFC’s earnings caused analysts to drop price targets on the company, with Jefferies Financial Group downgrading shares from a buy rating to a hold rating with a $7 target price on the stock. That’s down from its prior target price of $10. Alliance Global Partners also lowered its price target to $10 from $13 and kept a Buy rating on the shares.

Other cannabis-adjacent companies that pay dividends include Altria Group, which had a substantial investment in Cronos Group. That company has an 8.3% dividend yield. Constellation Brands also has a big investment in Canopy Growth, and it has a dividend yield of 1.47%.

Advanced Flower Capital, formerly AFC Gamma, (NASDAQ: AFCG) announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended Dec. 31, 2024.

AFC reported a net loss of $1 million, or 5 cents per basic weighted average common share, and distributable earnings of $6.3 million, or 29 cents per basic weighted average common share, for the fourth quarter of 2024. This fell from 2023’s fourth-quarter distributable earnings of $10 million or 49 cents. The company declared a dividend of 33 cents for the fourth quarter, which also fell from last year’s fourth-quarter dividend of 48 cents.

For the full year, the company reported GAAP net income of $16.8 million, or 78 cents per basic weighted average common share, and distributable earnings of $34.9 million, or $1.68 per basic weighted average common share. This was a drop from 2023’s distributable earnings of $41.4 million or $2.04.

The company’s interest income for 2024 was $51.9 million versus 2023’s interest income of $70.2 million. Total expenses fell from $22.3 million in 2023 to $17.2 million in 2024.

The company said in its filing that the interest income decreased by approximately $18.3 million, or 26%, for 2024 versus 2023.

“This decrease was driven by lower interest income of approximately ($17.9) million driven by Subsidiary of Private Company G, Private Company K and Private Company A on nonaccrual status during fiscal year 2024, lower interest income of approximately ($7.7) million driven by less capital deployed relating to loan exits and prepayments, partially offset by higher fee income of approximately $3.8 million driven by loan exits and prepayments during the year ended December 31, 2024, and higher OID income of approximately $3.5 million due to the acceleration of unaccreted OID of current year loan exits and prepayments during the year ended December 31, 2024, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, respectively.”

“We believe that the capital supply and demand imbalance in the cannabis sector will remain in the medium-term, given the Republican sweep in November and the lack of progress on Federal reform. This provides the opportunity for AFC to deploy capital into deals with strong risk adjusted returns,” stated Daniel Neville, AFC’s chief executive officer.

He added, “We continue to put capital preservation at the forefront of our investments and remain disciplined on providing debt capital in a challenging environment for operators. As we have done over the last year and plan to do in the coming year, we continue to focus on diversifying our portfolio and providing debt capital to operators who have previous success executing in the cannabis industry.”

AFC told investors that during 2024 it funded approximately $128.8 million of new loans and additional principal, had approximately $53.4 million of principal repayments of loans held at carrying value and sold $90 million in the aggregate of our investments in the Subsidiary of Public Company H and Subsidiary of Public Company M.

On March 11, the company declared a regular cash dividend of 23 cents per common share for the first quarter of 2025. This is a huge drop from last year’s first-quarter dividend of 48 cents per share.

Privately held multistate operator Story Cannabis received a second cash infusion from Florida-based Advanced Flower Capital (Nasdaq: AFCG), formerly known as AFC Gamma, to the tune of $15 million, which it intends to use to fund more expansion in Ohio.

The loan – which was technically awarded to an Ohio-specific subsidiary of Arizona-based Story – comes less than half a year after AFC also loaned Story $41 million to build out operations in Maryland in October.

AFC CEO Daniel Neville said in a press release that Story has proven itself as one of the more creditworthy companies in the U.S. marijuana trade, with a team that has “consistently executed in a volatile cannabis market.”

The new $15 million loan was secured by the value of licenses held by Story in both Ohio and Georgia, along with real estate the company owns in both states, as collateral. The funds will be used to purchase and build out new dispensaries in Ohio, Story said in a release.

Story also has a footprint in New Jersey, according to the company website.

The cash infusion news comes at a time when capital has been scarce for U.S. cannabis companies, with more and more companies choosing to rely on debt financing over selling equity stakes. Those financial struggles have also hit home for AFC, which reported a sharp decline in cannabis industry income in the third quarter last year.