Realty Income Corporation (O) will raise its monthly dividend by another 0.2 percent to $0.2335 per share in Q3 of 2020. Earlier this year the real estate investment trust already hiked its dividend twice for a total increase of 2.6 percent. Realty Income is a Dividend Aristocrat having raised its monthly dividend for 26 consecutive years in 2020.

The next dividend of 23.35 cents per share is payable on July 15, 2020 to shareholders of record as of July 1, 2020. A new annualized dividend amount of $2.802 per share yields 4.7% at a stock price of $58.67.

In the press release dated June 9, 2020 the company mentions that this is the 107th dividend increase since Realty Income's listing on the NYSE in 1994. The ex-dividend date for July's dividend is June 30, 2020. "We remain committed to our company's mission of paying dependable monthly dividends to our shareholders that increase over time," said Sumit Roy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Realty Income. "Our Board of Directors has once again determined that we are able to increase the amount of the monthly dividend to our shareholders, marking the 107th increase since our company's public listing in 1994. With the payment of the July dividend, we will have made 600 consecutive monthly dividend payments throughout our 51-year operating history." 

Last year Realty Income hiked its dividend five times for a total increase of 2.9 percent. This completed 25 consecutive years of annual dividend increases by the company. Dividend growth has been slowing down a bit since last year, but Realty Income had periods of slower dividend growth before like in 2014 when the dividend was hiked by only 0.7 percent. The biggest dividend increase was announced in 2013, when Realty hiked its dividend by a total of 20.0 percent. This also explains the smaller increase in the following year as mentioned above.

Currently Realty Income pays almost one billion dollars in dividends annually. Actually the current annual dividend payment is $962 million.

Realty Income Corporation is a real estate investment trust (REIT) with properties owned under long-term lease agreements with regional and national commercial tenants. The company has tenants active in 48 segments, including Apparel, Automotive tire services, Beverages, Child care, Convenience stores, Dollar stores, Drug stores, Financial services, Food processing, Grocery stores, Health and fitness, Health care, Home improvement, Restaurants-casual dining, Restaurants-quick service, Sporting goods, Theaters, Transportation services and Wholesale club. The company's biggest tenants include Walgreens, 7-Eleven, FedEx, LA Fitness, AMC Theaters and Dollar Tree (including Family Dollar Stores).