What These Companies Are
A REIT (real estate investment trust) owns property and must pay out most of its taxable income as dividends. Realty Income (O) and Agree Realty (ADC) are net-lease REITs. They own stores, pharmacies and warehouses leased for 10 to 20 years to tenants who also pay the property taxes, insurance and upkeep, so the income looks a lot like a bond coupon.
VICI Properties (VICI) owns casinos, including Caesars Palace and the Venetian, on very long leases. Equinix (EQIX) owns data centers. Its rent grows with AI and cloud demand rather than through fixed annual escalators.
Prices Fell, Dividends Didn't
O closed at $53.53 on October 1, 2026. That is 20.8% below its March 2 closing high of $67.56 and just above its 52-week low of $53.33. ADC is 20.6% off its high and VICI is 25.1% off. Over roughly the same stretch, the 10-year Treasury yield rose from 4.05% (March 2) to 5.29% (September 30).
The dividends held. O, VICI and ADC all raised 2026 AFFO guidance this summer, and none has announced a cut. O pays $0.2715 a month, a forward yield of 6.09% at $53.53. In short, the REITs whose rent looks most like a bond were sold like bonds. The market put a new price on the income stream, but the income stream itself is intact. (We flagged O's rate risk in July. This piece compares the whole sector and covers the selloff as it happened.)
The 2026 total-return chart at the top of the page shows the split. EQIX is the line pulling away, up 34.1% in 2026 through October 1. O and VICI dropped about the same amount over the last three months (total returns of -15.0% and -14.8%). VICI started that slide weaker, though: -14.9% for 2026 versus -1.2% for O. The chart doesn't show O as uniquely beaten down. It fell along with the other REITs whose rent works like a coupon.
Performance and yield figures are historical and may change. Total return includes price movement and distributions where available. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Yield is not the same as total return.
The Scoreboard (closes through October 1, 2026)
| Ticker | What it owns | Price off 2026 closing high | 3-month total return | 2026 YTD total return |
| O | Net-lease retail/industrial | -20.8% | -15.0% | -1.2% |
| ADC | Net-lease retail | -20.6% | -15.5% | -6.8% |
| VICI | Casinos, long leases | -25.1% | -14.8% | -14.9% |
| NNN | Net-lease retail | -18.9% | -14.3% | +5.7% |
| MAA | Apartments | -18.2% | -17.2% | -13.2% |
| PLD | Warehouses | -14.6% | -7.3% | +2.8% |
| DLR | Data centers | -13.4% | +2.5% | +16.4% |
| EQIX | Data centers | -9.3% | +1.5% | +34.1% |
| VNQ | Whole US REIT index ETF | -11.7% | -8.2% | +3.7% |
| TLT | Long-term Treasuries ETF | -14.4% | -8.0% | -7.7% |
| SPY | S&P 500 | -1.8% | +2.8% | +12.9% |
The sort is clear. Net-lease and casino REITs fell about as much as long-term Treasuries, or more. Data-center REITs posted gains over the last three months while the broad market rose.
The Yield Gap: O Stayed About 0.8 Points Above the 10-Year
We compared O's forward yield (latest declared dividend, annualized) with the 10-year Treasury yield on three dates. The gap barely moved.
| Date (2026) | O price | O forward yield | O yield minus 10-year |
| March 2 | $67.56 | 4.80% | 0.75 pts |
| July 1 | $61.82 | 5.26% | 0.78 pts |
| October 1 | $53.53 | 6.09% | 0.80 pts |
