Published on: 2025-04-23
Updated on: 2026-07-30
Fewer than 100 US-listed companies pay dividends every month. Almost all of them are real estate investment trusts (REITs), business development companies (BDCs) or closed-end funds, because tax law forces those structures to distribute nearly all of their taxable income. The ten below are the largest and most consistent monthly payers as of July 2026, ranked by how well each one covers its distribution rather than by headline yield.
Realty Income has now declared 672 consecutive monthly dividends and raised its payout 135 times since listing in 1994.
Yields across the ten range from roughly 4.1% to about 17%, and the spread reflects risk, not generosity.
The three mortgage REITs on this list (AGNC, Dynex, ARMOUR) carry the highest yields and the most sensitive earnings, because their income depends on the gap between borrowing costs and mortgage bond yields.
REIT dividends are taxed as ordinary income, but the Section 199A deduction, made permanent in July 2025, allows a 20% write-off on the qualifying portion.
Monthly payment frequency changes when cash arrives. It does not, by itself, increase the annual amount you receive.
# |
Company (Ticker) |
Type |
Monthly dividend |
Annualized |
Yield (late July 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Realty Income (O) |
Net lease REIT |
$0.2710 |
$3.252 |
~4.9% |
2 |
Agree Realty (ADC) |
Net lease REIT |
$0.267 |
$3.204 |
~4.1% |
3 |
Main Street Capital (MAIN) |
BDC |
$0.265 + supplementals |
$3.18 + extras |
~7.9% incl. supplemental |
4 |
EPR Properties (EPR) |
Experiential REIT |
$0.31 |
$3.72 |
~5.8% |
5 |
Apple Hospitality (APLE) |
Hotel REIT |
$0.08 |
$0.96 |
~5.7% |
6 |
LTC Properties (LTC) |
Healthcare REIT |
$0.19 |
$2.28 |
~5.3% |
7 |
Gladstone Commercial (GOOD) |
Industrial net lease REIT |
$0.10 |
$1.20 |
~9.6% |
8 |
AGNC Investment (AGNC) |
Mortgage REIT |
$0.12 |
$1.44 |
~12.8% |
9 |
Dynex Capital (DX) |
Mortgage REIT |
$0.17 |
$2.04 |
~15.9% |
10 |
ARMOUR Residential (ARR) |
Mortgage REIT |
$0.24 |
$2.88 |
~17% |
Realty Income declared its 135th dividend increase on June 9, 2026, lifting the monthly payment to $0.2710 per share, an annualised $3.252. That was its 672nd consecutive monthly dividend since the 1994 NYSE listing, and the company has raised the payout for more than 31 straight years, which puts it in the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index.
The coverage is the reason it ranks first. Realty Income grew adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share by 2.1% in 2025 to $4.28, its fifteenth consecutive year of AFFO growth, against an annualised dividend of roughly $3.25. The portfolio ran to more than 15,500 properties across all 50 states, the UK and eight other European countries as of March 31, 2026.
The trade-off is growth. Annual rent escalators on its long-term net leases average around 1%, so dividend increases arrive in fractions of a cent, and the shares are sensitive to interest rates.
Agree Realty pays $0.267 monthly, an annualised $3.204, which the company describes as a 4.3% increase over the equivalent rate a year earlier. Its portfolio held 2,756 properties across all 50 states and roughly 57.5 million square feet of leasable area as of March 31, 2026, leased mainly to large necessity-based retailers.
At about 4.1%, this is the lowest yield on the list, and that is deliberate on management’s part: a more modest payout leaves more coverage headroom. The offsetting consideration is how the company funds growth. Agree Realty completed a follow-on equity offering of roughly $1.0 billion in April 2026 and authorised a $1.75 billion at-the-market program, so per-share results depend on deploying that capital at returns above its cost.
The only BDC on the list, and the one with the strongest structural record. Main Street declared regular monthly dividends of $0.265 per share for July, August and September 2026, a 1.9% rise on the prior quarter, and it has never reduced its regular monthly dividend since its October 2007 IPO.
It also pays supplemental dividends, most recently $0.30 in June 2026. Including that supplemental, the company put its annualised yield at 7.9% based on the $55.76 closing price on May 4, 2026. Cumulative dividends since the IPO reached $50.11 per share against a $15.00 offering price.
Main Street lends to and takes equity stakes in US lower-middle-market companies. That is credit risk: in a recession, borrower defaults reach net investment income before they reach the dividend.
EPR announced a 5.1% monthly dividend increase alongside its 2025 year-end results on February 25, 2026, taking the payment to $0.31 per share, or $3.72 annualised. Total assets stood at roughly $5.7 billion across 42 states and Canada.
What sets EPR apart is what it owns: around 150 theatre properties, 64 eat-and-play venues, 26 attractions, 24 fitness and wellness sites and 11 ski properties. Rent depends on consumers continuing to spend discretionary money on leaving the house, and the theatre exposure in particular ties a meaningful slice of income to cinema attendance.
Apple Hospitality has held its distribution at $0.08 per month, $0.96 annualised, and declared the August 2026 payment on July 20. The portfolio covers 216 hotels with approximately 29,500 rooms across 83 markets in 37 states and the District of Columbia.
This one demonstrates the yield-versus-price relationship better than any other name here. The company reported an annual yield of about 8.1% based on its March 18, 2026 closing price of $11.79. By July 17, with the shares at $16.84 and the distribution unchanged, that same $0.96 represented roughly 5.7%. The income never moved. The price did.
Hotel revenue reprices nightly, which makes cash flow here more cyclical than a net lease REIT’s contracted rent.
LTC pays $0.19 monthly, $2.28 annualised, a rate unchanged since October 2016. The REIT owns close to 190 seniors housing and skilled nursing properties, with roughly 63% of gross real estate investments in seniors housing communities.
A decade of flat payments is the honest headline. On the other side, the operating picture improved through 2025 and into 2026 as the company shifted toward its SHOP segment, which reached 24% of investments after $353 million of acquisitions, while skilled nursing exposure fell to 36% from 46%. Funds available for distribution reached $0.73 per share in the fourth quarter of 2025 against quarterly dividends of $0.57.
Gladstone Commercial has paid $0.10 per month, $1.20 annualised, through 2026, yielding about 9.6% against its $12.53 price on July 9, 2026. The company invested $206.7 million across 19 assets in 2025, all industrial, as part of a long-running shift away from office.
The near double-digit yield reflects a smaller balance sheet and a capital recycling program in which non-core assets are sold to reduce leverage. Occupancy and rent collection have been stable, but this is a mid-cap REIT competing for industrial assets against much larger buyers.
AGNC has paid $0.12 per month for 75 consecutive months, an annualised $1.44, yielding roughly 12.8% at its $11.22 price on July 20, 2026. It is the largest agency mortgage REIT, holding a $97.2 billion portfolio at June 30, 2026, of which 95% was fixed-rate agency mortgage-backed securities carrying a guarantee against credit losses from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae.
The second-quarter numbers explain both the appeal and the risk. Net spread and dollar roll income came in at $0.40 per share against $0.36 of dividends, coverage of about 1.11 times, leaving four cents of cushion. Tangible net book value rose $0.20 to $8.58 per share, producing a 6.7% economic return for the quarter at 7.4 times leverage.
Note the gap between the $10.92 closing price on July 20 and the $8.58 book value, a premium of roughly 27%. Buyers at that level pay well above the value of the underlying bond portfolio.
Dynex pays $0.17 monthly, $2.04 annualised, for a yield near 15.9%. The company reported book value of $12.67 as of July 17, 2026, second-quarter net income of $180.79 million and EPS of $0.80, and expanded its agency MBS portfolio by more than 40% during the quarter. Its economic return for the quarter was 6.4%.
Like AGNC, Dynex borrows short to hold longer-dated mortgage bonds. The spread between those two rates drives everything, and it can compress quickly when interest rate expectations shift.
ARMOUR declared $0.24 per share for August 2026 on July 21, an annualised $2.88, which works out to a 17% yield. That is the highest figure on this list, and it comes with the clearest warning attached.
The distribution is not currently covered by earnings. Third-party analysis puts the earnings payout ratio around 133%, and the cash payout ratio near 266%, and the dividend has declined over the past decade rather than grown. ARMOUR’s own filings state that dividend levels are set at the board’s discretion based on operating results, cash flows, capital needs and market conditions.
A yield this high is the market pricing in the possibility of a reduction. It is included here because it is one of the largest monthly payers by dividend size, not because the payout has the durability of the names above it.
STAG Industrial (NYSE: STAG) stopped paying monthly. On January 8, 2026, the board declared a first-quarter dividend of $0.3875 per share and confirmed a shift from monthly to quarterly cadence, alongside an increase in the annual rate from $1.49 to $1.55. Several screeners and published lists still describe STAG as a monthly payer. As of 2026, it is not.
PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE: PFLT) reduced its monthly distribution. The BDC paid $0.1025 per share monthly through the spring of 2026, then declared $0.0833 for June, made up of an $0.08 base dividend plus a $0.0033 supplemental. That is a cut of roughly 19%.
Both changes happened inside twelve months, which is the practical argument for checking a company’s own investor relations page before relying on any list, including this one.
The pattern is a product of tax law rather than corporate generosity. To keep REIT status, a company must distribute at least 90% of its taxable income to shareholders each year under Internal Revenue Code Section 857, and the SEC notes that most REITs pay out at least 100%. BDCs that elect regulated investment company treatment face a comparable 90% distribution requirement under Subchapter M.
High payouts at these companies are a legal condition of the structure. That is worth holding in mind, because a 12% yield from a mortgage REIT signals something very different from a 12% yield at an ordinary operating company.
Monthly rather than quarterly timing is then a marketing and cash-management choice layered on top. Realty Income has built its entire brand identity on it.
Net income is the wrong measure for a REIT. Real estate depreciation is a large non-cash charge that pushes reported earnings well below actual cash generation, which is why Realty Income’s payout ratio looks like 265% on an earnings basis and comfortable on an AFFO basis. Use these instead:
Funds from operations (FFO): net income plus real estate depreciation and amortisation, minus gains on property sales. Adjusted FFO (AFFO) goes further by subtracting recurring capital expenditure and normalising straight-line rent. Compare the dividend to AFFO per share.
For BDCs: net investment income per share against the distribution, treating supplementals separately from the base.
For mortgage REITs: net spread and dollar roll income against the dividend, plus the direction of book value per share. Falling book value alongside a maintained dividend is the classic warning pattern.
Return of capital: check Box 3 of your Form 1099-DIV. If a meaningful share of the distribution is return of capital, part of the payment is your own money coming back, and it reduces your cost basis. Across all REITs, 12% of 2024 common dividends were classified as return of capital, according to Nareit.
Learning to read dividend yield correctly is the starting point, since the same yield figure can describe a growing payout or a collapsing share price.
Roughly 75 to 120 US-listed securities pay monthly, depending on whether funds are counted. The largest and longest-running include Realty Income, Agree Realty, Main Street Capital, EPR Properties, Apple Hospitality REIT, LTC Properties, Gladstone Commercial, AGNC Investment, Dynex Capital and ARMOUR Residential REIT. Most are REITs or BDCs.
Realty Income, with 672 consecutive monthly dividends declared since its 1994 NYSE listing and more than 31 consecutive years of increases. Gladstone Land has paid 161 consecutive monthly distributions since its January 2013 IPO.
Yield alone tells you nothing about reliability. ARMOUR Residential yields around 17% with an earnings payout ratio near 133%, while Agree Realty yields about 4.1% with substantial coverage. The durable indicator is the relationship between the distribution and AFFO for a REIT, net investment income for a BDC, or net spread income for a mortgage REIT.
The same way as quarterly ones. Most REIT distributions are ordinary income, though the permanent Section 199A deduction allows a 20% write-off on the qualifying portion, cutting the top effective federal rate to roughly 29.6%. Portions classified as long-term capital gains or return of capital are treated differently, and your Form 1099-DIV breaks this down each year.
The gap between the top and bottom of this list is not a gap in generosity. Realty Income yields about 4.9% and has raised its dividend 135 times. ARMOUR yields around 17% and is paying out more than it earns. Both are legitimate monthly payers; they are answering different questions.
The most useful habit for anyone holding these is to track the coverage metric rather than the yield. For an equity REIT, watch AFFO per share against the annualised dividend each quarter. For a mortgage REIT, watch book value per share alongside net spread income. Those figures move before the dividend does, which gives you warning that a yield screen never will.
Disclaimer: This material is for general information purposes only and is not intended as (and should not be considered to be) financial, investment or other advice on which reliance should be placed. No opinion given in the material constitutes a recommendation by EBC or the author that any particular investment, security, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person.
