Realty Income Corporation (O) Downgraded as JPMorgan Reshapes 2026 REIT Outlook

Realty Income Corporation (NYSE:O) is included among the 13 Highest Paying Monthly Dividend Stocks to Buy.

On December 18, JPMorgan downgraded Realty Income Corporation (NYSE:O) to Underweight from Neutral and kept its price target at $61. The move was part of the firm’s broader 2026 outlook for REITs. JPMorgan made two upgrades and seven downgrades across the group. The higher number of cuts points to a “more stratified ratings distribution,” the analyst wrote in a research note.

Realty Income Corporation (NYSE:O)’s long-term growth story is still hard to ignore. Revenue has climbed from $49 million in 1994 to $5.27 billion in 2024. That’s a 10,657% increase. The dividend strategy is a bit unusual. Increases are often small, sometimes just a fraction of a cent, but they happen frequently. Over time, those raises stack up. On December 9, the company lifted its monthly dividend by 0.2% to $0.27 per share.

For years, Realty Income Corporation (NYSE:O) focused almost entirely on the US. That started to change in 2019 with its first international deal. The company bought 12 U.K. properties leased to grocery chain Sainsbury’s. Since then, Europe has become a bigger part of the picture.

As of last quarter, 17.7% of contractual rent now comes from Europe and the U.K. The company invested $1 billion in European properties last quarter alone. That’s higher than the $889 million spent in Q2 and the $893 million in Q1. So far, the returns look better overseas. New European assets are generating an initial weighted average cash yield of 8%, compared with about 7% for new US properties.

Realty Income Corporation (NYSE:O) is a REIT that owns free-standing, single-tenant commercial properties across the US, the U.K., and six other European countries.

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Disclosure: None.