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Realty Income or Agree Realty: If I Could Only Collect One Monthly Dividend Until Retirement, It Would Be This One

Both Realty Income and Agree Realty pay monthly dividends, own net lease properties, and have pulled back sharply in recent weeks, but holding the wrong one through retirement could cost you decades of compounding growth.

By Joel South
Published October 8, 2026, 8:00am ET · 3 min read

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Realty Income (NYSE:O) or Agree Realty (NYSE:ADC): If you could own only one monthly dividend payer from today until retirement, which one should it be? Both are equity REITs that own net lease properties and pay every month. Both have also pulled back recently. Realty Income is down 12.57% over the past month and Agree Realty is down 7.62%.

My pick is Agree Realty. I compared the two on dividend coverage, tenant quality and growth potential, and Agree Realty comes out ahead on all three.

Dividend Coverage: Agree Realty Has the Bigger Safety Cushion

The right way to judge whether a REIT can keep paying its dividend is adjusted funds from operations (AFFO). AFFO is a cash-earnings measure that adds back non-cash depreciation. Agree’s management described its dividend as “very well covered,” with a second-quarter payout of 70% of AFFO per share. Against the midpoint of 2026 AFFO guidance, Agree’s forward dividend of $3.204 uses about 70% of the $4.57 to $4.59 range. Realty Income’s $3.258 forward dividend uses about 73% of its $4.44 to $4.45 guidance. Agree also expects free cash flow after dividends to top $140 million this year.

Realty Income’s best argument is yield. At $54.04, it yields about 6.0%, compared with roughly 4.9% for Agree at $65.82. It also has a long record: 670+ consecutive monthly dividends and 115 straight quarterly increases. Agree only switched to monthly payments with its January 2021 payout. Still, a decades-long holder benefits more from a faster-growing payment built on a safer base. Agree’s monthly dividend of 26.7 cents is up 4.3% from a year ago. Realty Income’s rose from 26.95 cents to 27.15 cents over the same period.

Winner: Agree Realty

Tenant Quality: Agree Realty’s Investment-Grade Roster Is Far Stronger

At Agree, 73.2% of annualized base rent comes from investment-grade tenants. At Realty Income, the figure is 34.3%. Agree’s occupancy is 99.8% versus 98.8%, and its rent recapture rate is 105% versus 102.7%. Ground leases make up over 10% of Agree’s base rent. Joey Agree calls them his “favorite risk-adjusted returns in the overall net lease sector”. Realty Income has a Fitch “A” rating and is spreading into industrial, Europe, and a $6 billion data center joint venture. That spreads risk around, but it also makes the business more complex. Agree Realty’s tenants are simply more creditworthy.

Winner: Agree Realty

Scale Versus Runway: Agree Realty Has More Room to Grow

Realty Income’s size works against it here. With a market value of about $51.1 billion and 15,000+ properties, it needs $10 billion of planned 2026 investment just to produce about 4% AFFO growth. Agree is worth about $8.19 billion. Its $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion investment plan supports about 5.8% growth. In the second quarter, AFFO per share rose 7.4% at Agree versus 3.8% at Realty Income. The long-term record points the same way. Over 10 years, Agree’s adjusted share price rose 108.75% against 41.15% for Realty Income. Agree also has slightly less debt, with net debt at 5.2x recurring EBITDA (3.7x pro forma) versus 5.4x.

Winner: Agree Realty

Verdict: Agree Realty Is the One I’d Hold Until Retirement

Agree Realty wins. Realty Income pays more today, but Agree covers its dividend more well, rents to stronger tenants, and grows AFFO faster. Over a long holding period, a dividend that grows faster can close a starting yield gap. Agree is the better fit for anyone who wants a monthly payment that holds up over decades.

Here is what could break that thesis. Agree Realty depends entirely on U.S. retail. If a wave of big-box tenants got into trouble, or if borrowing costs rose enough to eliminate the spread on its 7% acquisition cap rates, its growth would slow to Realty Income’s pace. Its lower yield would then be hard to justify. Watch Agree’s 25 basis point credit-loss assumption and its AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) exposure, which management names as the largest item on its watch list.

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Joel South

Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.

He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.

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