Realty Income Just Raised Its Dividend Again. Here Are 2 More Monthly Payers
Most dividend stocks make you wait three months between payments, but a small group of NYSE companies cut those checks every single month and keep raising the amount. Three of them clear every safety bar worth checking.
Your mortgage, utilities, and insurance bills come every month, but most US dividend stocks pay only once a quarter. These three NYSE-listed companies pay monthly, and each backs those payments with solid coverage, a strong balance sheet, and a long record of raising the dividend. Realty Income (NYSE:O) leads the group. It recently announced its 116th consecutive quarterly dividend increase, which makes it one of the most reliable sources of monthly income on the market.
Realty Income
Realty Income calls itself “The Monthly Dividend Company,” and its numbers support the name. The stock yields 5.68%, based on $3.235 in trailing dividends per share and a recent price of $57.45. That counts as high-yield, though it falls short of ultra-high-yield territory.
Dividend safety: For a REIT, the best test of coverage is adjusted funds from operations (AFFO), the cash a landlord makes from its properties after recurring costs. Realty Income reported third-quarter AFFO of $1.12 per share, up 3.7% YoY, and hiked its full-year AFFO guidance to $4.45 to $4.46 per share. Its annualized dividend of $3.258 works out to about 73.2% of the low end of that range, so a solid layer of cash sits between the payout and any cut. Occupancy is 98.8%, and when leases came up for renewal, new rents averaged 103.5% of the old ones. Free cash flow is strong too, with a free cash flow yield of 7.09% and a price-to-free-cash-flow ratio of 14.
Its financial position supports the payout. Leverage stands at 0.83, Fitch rates the company “A”, and the revolving credit line was recently expanded to $5.5B. Few companies can match this history: this was the company’s 136th dividend increase since its 1994 NYSE listing, and its dividend history shows monthly payments going back to January 1999. Over the past year, the monthly payment rose from $0.2695 to $0.2715.
Bull case: Realty Income is the largest company in net-lease real estate, where tenants cover most property costs, and that size lets it keep expanding. It paid €528M for a 49% stake in 54 properties through a European joint venture, data centers made up 11.7% of its third-quarter new investments, and management reaffirmed its $10B investment target for 2026. The stock also trades below its 200-day moving average of $61.63, inside a 52-week range of $52.90 to $65.93.
Risk: Borrowing is getting more expensive. Interest expense rose to $333.6M from $294.5M. If debt costs keep climbing, they will take a bigger share of rental income and could slow future dividend increases.
Agree Realty
Agree Realty (NYSE:ADC) owns net-lease retail properties, and its tenants are among the strongest in the sector. The stock yields 4.71% at a recent price of $68.64. While it is the lowest yield of the three, the dividend is also growing quickly. Its monthly payment was just raised to $0.271, paid on November 13, 2026. Over a full year, that rate adds up to $3.252 per share.
Dividend safety: Coverage is measured on AFFO here too. Second-quarter AFFO came in at $1.14 per share, up 7.4% YoY, and the dividends paid that quarter used up only about 70.3% of it. The portfolio is 99.8% occupied across 2,825 properties. Investment-grade retailers pay about 73.2% of annualized base rent, and losses from tenant defaults and vacancies were just 0.06%. Renewal rents averaged 105% of prior rents.
Its finances add more protection. Agree has $1.9B of liquidity, and net debt runs at 5.2x recurring EBITDA (3.7x pro forma). It also raised about $686M in forward equity during the first half of the year, so it can fund new properties without leaning harder on debt. Its dividend history shows a clear pattern of increases. The monthly payment climbed from $0.247 in early 2024 through $0.25, $0.253, $0.256, $0.262, and $0.267 before reaching the current level.
Bull case: Agree’s tenants are getting stronger while it keeps buying more properties. It had a record investment quarter of about $502M across 102 properties at a 7.0% weighted-average cap rate, and new leases average 11.2 years. Retirees get a steadily rising monthly check from a tenant list that leans heavily investment-grade. The shares trade below their 200-day moving average of $74.52 and closer to the 52-week low of $64.08 than to the high of $80.58.
Risk: Agree has more exposure to floating interest rates than before. About $497M of commercial paper reprices as short-term rates change, and interest expense climbed to $40.3M from $32.3M YoY.
Main Street Capital
Main Street Capital (NYSE:MAIN | MAIN Price Prediction) is a business development company (BDC). It lends to and invests in smaller private companies, and by law it must pass most of its taxable income to shareholders. Because it makes its income from loans and equity stakes instead of rent, coverage is measured on distributable net investment income (DNII), the earnings available to pay dividends. The stock yields 5.59% on $3.09 in dividends per share, at a recent price of $55.92.
Dividend safety: Main Street pays a regular monthly dividend of $0.265 and adds a quarterly supplemental dividend of $0.30. The latest supplemental was its 20th consecutive quarterly supplemental dividend. Second-quarter DNII before taxes was $1.08 per share, enough to cover that quarter’s regular monthly dividends about 1.38 times. Net asset value hit a record $33.92 per share, annualized return on equity was 18.9%, and loans that stopped paying interest (non-accruals) were just 1.1% of the portfolio at fair value.
Leverage is conservative. Regulatory leverage stands at 0.69x, the asset coverage ratio is 2.44x, and the company has $1.2 billion of cash and unused credit, with no firm debt maturity until $400 million in June 2027. The regular monthly dividend has risen from $0.24 in early 2024 to the current rate, and it was $0.13 back in 2011.
The bull case rests on supplemental dividends that add real extra income. Supplemental payouts over the trailing 12 months totaled $1.20 per share, which management described as “an additional 38% paid to shareholders in excess of regular monthly dividends”. Selling equity stakes is helping fund those payments. Sales from three portfolio companies brought in about $88 million of realized gains, and management said it “anticipate[s] proposing an additional significant supplemental dividend payable in December 2026.” Over five years, the shares have gained 88.57%.
Risk: Earnings may have cooled. On the second-quarter call, management guided third-quarter DNII before taxes to at least $0.97 per share, citing less one-time income and higher borrowing costs after refinancing maturing notes at 6.93%. That level would still cover the regular monthly dividend about 1.22 times, but leaves a thinner margin for supplemental payouts.
Monthly Checks That Pass the Safety Test
Each of these three companies pays monthly, makes well more than it pays out, and keeps debt under control. Realty Income offers the longest record of increases, Agree Realty has the strongest tenant list and the fastest dividend growth, and Main Street Capital adds quarterly supplemental payments on top of its regular monthly dividend. Together, they give retirees income that arrives on the same schedule as their bills (if you want more names in this mold, we rounded up seven of our favorite monthly payers in a free report here).
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Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.
When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.
