Stocks / O
What If You Had Invested in Realty Income 10 Years Ago?
Realty Income Corporation (O) with real monthly prices, dividends reinvested, through November 2026.
O $59.50 ▲ +0.47% last close, Nov 05, 2026
If you had invested $1,000 in O in November 2016, today it would be worth
$1,781
Same $1,000 in the S&P 500 (SPY): $3,895
If you had put $500 a month into O since November 2016, your $60,500 would be worth today
$78,225
Same plan in the S&P 500 (SPY): $128,888
More options in the What If calculator.
O live price chart
O returns by period
| Period | Total return | Per year | $1,000 became | SPY per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 30, 2026 | $0.2720 | +0.0% | ||
| Sep 30, 2026 | $0.2720 | +0.4% | ||
| Aug 31, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.0% | ||
| Jul 31, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.0% | ||
| Jun 30, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.0% | ||
| May 29, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.0% | ||
| Apr 30, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.0% | ||
| Mar 31, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.4% | ||
| Feb 27, 2026 | $0.2700 | +0.0% | ||
| Jan 30, 2026 | $0.2700 | +0.0% | ||
| Dec 31, 2025 | $0.2700 | +0.0% | ||
| Nov 28, 2025 | $0.2700 | — |
O year by year
Best full year: 1995 (+46.3%). Worst: 2020 (-11.6%).
| Year | O | SPY | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | +10.3% | +8.3% | |
| 2025 | +12.2% | +17.7% | |
| 2024 | -2.1% | +24.9% | |
| 2023 | -4.5% | +26.2% | |
| 2022 | -7.4% | -18.2% | Rising interest rates weighed on REITs, and Realty Income's price fell even as its dividend grew. |
| 2021 | +24.0% | +28.7% | |
| 2020 | -11.6% | +18.3% | |
| 2019 | +21.3% | +31.2% | |
| 2018 | +15.9% | -4.6% | |
| 2017 | +3.7% | +21.7% | |
| 2016 | +15.8% | +12.0% | |
| 2015 | +13.4% | +1.2% | |
| 2014 | +34.3% | +13.5% | |
| 2013 | -2.3% | +32.3% | |
| 2012 | +20.3% | +16.0% | |
| 2011 | +7.5% | +1.9% | |
| 2010 | +39.3% | +15.1% | |
| 2009 | +20.8% | +26.4% | |
| 2008 | -8.2% | -36.8% | The global financial crisis. Bank failures and a deep recession made this one of the worst years for stocks since the 1930s. REITs fell sharply, but Realty Income kept paying and raising its monthly dividend. |
| 2007 | +3.3% | +5.1% |
O: all at once or every month?
Take $12,000: all of it on day one, or $1,000 a month for a year. Across every starting month since 1994 (374 of them), the lump sum was ahead after 12 months in 274 (73%). The lump sum usually won, but roughly one start in 4 favored spreading it out. The best case for monthly investing was a start in January 2020, when it finished the year 27% ahead.
Worst drop
O's worst fall in this history was -38.0%, a deep bear-market fall, from October 2019 to March 2020. Getting back to the old high took until July 2022: 28 months from the bottom and 2.8 years from the peak. $1,000 invested at that peak shrank to about $620 at the low.
Realty Income dividends
O paid $3.25 per share over the last 12 months, monthly. At $59.50 that is 5.46%, a high yield, so a large part of the return arrives as cash. From 2020 to 2025 the yearly payout grew +3.5% a year, steadily. The yearly total did not fall once in the last ten years. Amounts are adjusted for splits.
| Year | Dividends / share | Change | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $3.23 | +2.9% | 5.72% |
| 2024 | $3.14 | +2.4% | 5.87% |
| 2023 | $3.06 | +3.0% | 5.33% |
| 2022 | $2.97 | +7.1% | 4.69% |
| 2021 | $2.77 | +2.1% | 3.88% |
| 2020 | $2.72 | +3.1% | 4.51% |
| 2019 | $2.64 | +3.0% | 3.69% |
| 2018 | $2.56 | +4.0% | 4.19% |
| 2017 | $2.46 | +5.6% | 4.45% |
| 2016 | $2.33 | +5.4% | 4.19% |
Yield = each year’s dividends divided by the price at the end of the year.
O dividend history: last 12 payments
| Ex-dividend date | Amount | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 30, 2026 | $0.2720 | +0.0% |
| Sep 30, 2026 | $0.2720 | +0.4% |
| Aug 31, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.0% |
| Jul 31, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.0% |
| Jun 30, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.0% |
| May 29, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.0% |
| Apr 30, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.0% |
| Mar 31, 2026 | $0.2710 | +0.4% |
| Feb 27, 2026 | $0.2700 | +0.0% |
| Jan 30, 2026 | $0.2700 | +0.0% |
| Dec 31, 2025 | $0.2700 | +0.0% |
| Nov 28, 2025 | $0.2700 | — |
Stock splits
- January 2005: 2-for-1
- November 2021: 1.032-for-1
One share bought before 2005 is 2.064 shares today.
About Realty Income
| Company | Realty Income Corporation |
| Listed | October 1994 (NYSE) |
| Sector | Real estate (REIT) |
| Dividend | Paid monthly |
Realty Income owns more than 15,000 single-tenant buildings, such as drugstores, convenience stores and warehouses, leased to companies on long contracts where the tenant pays most costs.
It calls itself 'The Monthly Dividend Company' and has paid a dividend every month since 1994, raising it more than 100 times. As a REIT it must pay out most of its income, so most of its return comes from the dividend rather than the price.
Like other REITs, Realty Income is sensitive to interest rates, which raise its borrowing costs. That is why the stock struggled from 2022 even as the dividend kept rising.
Questions about O
How much would $10,000 invested in O 20 years ago be worth today?
About $61,699 with dividends reinvested, invested at the November 2006 close: 517.0% in total, or 9.5% a year.
When does O pay dividends?
In the last 12 months the payments went out every month, $3.25 per share in total.
Did O beat the S&P 500?
No. Over the last 20 years it trailed by 1.1 percentage points a year: +9.5% a year for O against +10.6% for SPY, dividends reinvested. Its worst fall was milder than SPY's over the same history (-38.0% against -50.8%).