The Monthly Dividend Company
Realty Income is a real estate investment trust that owns more than 15,500 commercial properties across all 50 states, the United Kingdom, and eight other countries in Europe. It leases them to retailers and other businesses on long contracts and passes the rent to shareholders.
The company has paid 671 consecutive monthly dividends since 1969. It has raised the payout for 31 years in a row, which puts it in the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, a group of companies with at least 25 straight years of increases.
Most stocks pay every three months. Realty Income pays every month, and it has built its entire brand around that schedule. The most recent declared dividend is $0.2705 per share, set to pay on June 15.
A Track Record That Grows Slowly
The streak matters more than any single check. Realty Income has lifted its dividend more than 100 times since it went public in 1994, and in 2025 the per-share payout rose about 2.9%.
That pace will not double your income overnight. What it does is move in one direction, year after year, through recessions, rate spikes, and two market crashes. For a retiree who wants a paycheck that holds its ground against inflation, steady beats spectacular.
The monthly schedule adds a quiet edge. Reinvested payouts buy new shares twelve times a year instead of four, and those shares start earning their own dividends sooner. Over a long holding period that small timing difference compounds.
The Yield Today
At a recent price near $60, the stock yields about 5.4%. That is more than four times the roughly 1.2% yield on the S&P 500 and higher than most blue-chip dividend payers offer.
A high yield is never free. The shares have traded in a range of about $56 to $68 over the past year, and the price has moved mostly sideways for two years while the dividend kept climbing.
The yield rises when the price falls. So part of today's payout reflects a stock the market has cooled on, not just a generous policy. The market value sits near $56 billion.
A Payout Built on Triple-Net Leases
Realty Income uses a structure called the triple-net lease. The tenant pays the property taxes, the insurance, and the upkeep, which leaves the landlord with steadier income and fewer surprise bills.
Its leases run long, often a decade or more, and many carry small built-in rent increases each year. Portfolio occupancy was 98.9% at the end of March, near the highest level in the company's history.
The tenant list leans toward businesses that hold up when money is tight. Dollar General, Walgreens, and 7-Eleven rank among the largest, the kind of stores people use whether the market is up or down.
AFFO Is the Number That Matters
A REIT's reported earnings look strange because accounting rules force it to subtract large sums for property depreciation. That is why Realty Income trades at a price-to-earnings ratio above 45, a figure that would look absurd for a normal company.
Investors judge REITs on adjusted funds from operations, or AFFO, which adds that depreciation back. Realty Income earned a record $4.28 in AFFO per share in 2025, its 15th straight year of AFFO growth, and guided 2026 to a range of $4.41 to $4.44.
That puts the stock near 14 times forward AFFO. The dividend consumes roughly three-quarters of that cash flow, which leaves room to keep raising the payout without straining the balance sheet.
What Higher Rates Do to the Stock
REITs and bonds compete for the same income buyer. When the 10-year Treasury yield climbs above 4.5%, as it has this year, a safe government bond starts to rival a REIT's payout, and the stock tends to drift lower.
Higher rates bite a second way. Realty Income borrows steadily to buy new properties, and costlier debt makes each deal less profitable. That pressure helps explain why the stock has lagged even as the dividend grew.
The main risks are concentration and slow growth. Most tenants are retailers, so a deep consumer pullback would test the model, and AFFO growth in the low single digits is reliable but unhurried.
Where It Goes From Here
For an income investor, the real question is whether a 5.4% yield that rises a few percent a year beats a Treasury bond that now pays nearly as much with no stock risk attached.
The answer turns on rates. If the Fed holds through 2026, Realty Income's edge over Treasuries stays thin and the stock has little reason to break out. If cuts return, a name that pays every month and lifts the dividend every year tends to be one of the first places income buyers go back to.
