Realty Income

William (Bill) and Joan Clark founded Realty Income in 1969 in Escondido, California.⁠[1]

Its first property was a Taco BellTaco BellTaco Bell is a Mexican-inspired quick-service restaurant brand within Yum! Brands, founded by Glen Bell in Downey, California, in 1962 and headquartered in Irvine. It serves tacos, burritos and other customizable food through franchised and company-owned restaurants. Sean Tresvant has served as division CEO since 2024.Open the full entry restaurant in Northridge, California, bought directly from Taco Bell founder Glen Bell.⁠[2]

On August 15, 1994, Realty Income began operating as a real estate investment trust (REIT) through the merger of 25 public and private real estate limited partnerships. The partnerships had been formed between 1970 and 1989 to acquire and manage long-term, net-leased properties.⁠[3]

The same year its shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “O.”⁠[1]

It received investment-grade ratings from Moody’s, S&P and Fitch in 1996 and joined the S&P MidCap Index in 2007.⁠[2]

It had 53 employees as of March 1, 2002.⁠[3]

On January 22, 2013, Realty Income closed its acquisition of American Realty Capital Trust (ARCT). ARCT shareholders received 0.2874 Realty Income shares for each ARCT share, plus a one-time cash payment of $0.35 per share.⁠[4]

On September 3, 2013, Realty Income announced that Tom A. Lewis, CEO since 1997, had decided to retire, and that President and Chief Investment Officer John P. Case would succeed him as CEO and join the board. Lewis stayed until early the following year to assist the transition and remained vice chairman of the board.⁠[5]

On March 27, 2015, S&P Dow Jones IndicesS&P Dow Jones IndicesS&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) is a global index provider that compiles and licenses benchmark indices including the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It was formed in 2012 by combining McGraw-Hill’s S&P index business with the Dow Jones Indexes business held by a joint venture of CME Group and Dow Jones, and it is now the index business division of S&P Global, which holds about 73% of the interest.Open the full entry announced that S&P MidCap 400 constituent Realty Income would replace Windstream Holdings in the S&P 500S&P 500The S&P 500 is a U.S. large-cap equity index compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It includes 500 leading companies, covers about 80% of available market capitalization and is described by S&P DJI as “widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities.”Open the full entry after the close of trading on April 6, joining the GICS Retail REITs sub-industry.⁠[6]

On October 16, 2018, Realty Income appointed President and Chief Operating Officer Sumit Roy as CEO, effective immediately, and to the board, succeeding John P. Case. Roy had joined in 2011, became chief investment officer in 2013, COO in 2014 and president in 2015, after seven years as a director at UBSUBSUBS is a global financial group headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, operating wealth management, Swiss personal and corporate banking, asset management and investment banking. Its modern bank emerged from a 1998 merger, its holding company was incorporated in 2014, and it acquired Credit Suisse in 2023.Open the full entry Investment Bank.⁠[7]

On April 22, 2019, Realty Income announced a £429 million sale-leaseback transaction with Sainsbury’s covering 12 properties in the United Kingdom, its first international real estate acquisition.⁠[8]

On April 29, 2021, Realty Income announced an all-stock merger with VEREIT under which VEREIT shareholders would receive 0.705 Realty Income shares per share, creating a company with an enterprise value of about $50 billion. The companies planned to spin off substantially all office properties into a new public REIT after closing.⁠[9]

Realty Income announced the completion of the merger on November 1, 2021. The spun-off Orion Office REIT was to trade on the NYSE as ONL, with one Orion share distributed for every ten Realty Income shares.⁠[10]

On December 1, 2022, Realty Income closed its $1.7 billion sale-leaseback of the land and real estate of Encore Boston Harbor from Wynn Resorts, which continues to operate the resort under a triple-net lease. It was the company’s first acquisition in the gaming industry.⁠[11]

In 2023 it entered three new European countries, closed about $9.5 billion of investments and made its first data center investment.⁠[2]

On October 30, 2023, Realty Income agreed to acquire Spirit Realty Capital in an all-stock transaction valued at an enterprise value of about $9.3 billion, with Spirit shareholders receiving 0.762 newly issued Realty Income shares per share. As of June 30, 2023, Spirit owned 2,064 retail, industrial and other properties across 49 states.⁠[12]

The merger closed on January 23, 2024, with Spirit’s Series A preferred shares exchanged for Realty Income Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock.⁠[13]

On December 1, 2025, Realty Income announced an $800 million perpetual preferred equity investment in the CityCenter Las Vegas real estate (ARIA and Vdara) owned by Blackstone Real Estate funds, with an expected unlevered initial return of 7.4%. MGM Resorts International operates the properties. It was its second investment with Blackstone Real Estate after the 2023 Bellagio joint venture.⁠[14]

In fiscal 2025 Realty Income had total revenue of $5,749.4 million and net income available to common stockholders of $1.1 billion, or $1.17 per share. As of December 31, 2025, it owned or held interests in 15,511 properties, with occupancy of 98.9%.⁠[15]

In December 2025 it announced its 113th consecutive quarterly dividend increase, the 133rd since its NYSE listing.⁠[15]

As of December 31, 2025, the company had 544 employees, properties in all 50 U.S. states, the U.K. and eight other European countries, and headquarters in San Diego, California.⁠[16]

In the first quarter of 2026 Realty Income completed a $1.7 billion cornerstone capital raise for its U.S. Core Plus Fund. The fund called $638.0 million from third-party investors on January 1, 2026, and another $310.0 million on April 1, reducing Realty Income’s indirect ownership to 26.8%.⁠[17]

On January 12, 2026, Realty Income announced a strategic partnership with GICGICGIC is a long-term investment management institution wholly owned by the Government of Singapore, established in 1981 and headquartered in Singapore. It is entrusted with investing Singapore’s foreign reserves across equities, fixed income, private equity, real estate, and infrastructure, in order to preserve and enhance the reserves’ international purchasing power. The company is now named GIC Private Limited; its chairman is Lee Hsien Loong and its chief executive officer is Lim Chow Kiat.Open the full entry with more than $1.5 billion of combined capital commitments, mainly to fund build-to-suit logistics developments pre-leased to investment-grade-equivalent tenants, with Realty Income holding a majority interest. A separate build-to-suit portfolio of about $200 million in Mexico City and Guadalajara was its first investment in Mexico.⁠[18]

In the first half of 2026 net income available to common stockholders was $0.70 per share and investment volume was $5.3 billion. As of June 30, 2026, it owned or held interests in 15,588 properties, with occupancy of 98.8%.⁠[19]