Realty Income earnings: September 2026 quarter

Realty Income, which buys buildings and rents them to shops and other businesses, grew sales about 10% to $1.62 billion in the September quarter, mostly by buying more property and lending more rather than by raising rents on buildings it already owned. It nudged up its forecast for cash profit per share for 2026 for the second quarter running. To pay for its buying it is borrowing more, and new purchases now earn a lower starting return than a year ago. ¹

Against what analysts expected

Analysts' average forecast was $1.11 a share (Nasdaq's earnings calendar), a figure that matches the company's cash-profit measure rather than its $0.43 accounting profit per share; the findings do not give the quarter's figure on that measure, so the two cannot be set side by side here. ¹²

The strong points

• Sales rose about 10% from a year earlier, to $1.62 billion, mainly because it owns more buildings and lends more. ¹
• It paid out only 72.6% of its cash profit as dividends, so it kept a growing sum to reinvest. ¹
• It kept more of each dollar of rent than in any of the last nine quarters, with profit before depreciation, interest and tax at 95.4% of rental revenue. ¹

The weak points

• It invested $2.23 billion in the quarter, but the starting yearly return on that money fell to 6.8% from 7.7% a year earlier. ¹
• Interest costs rose 13.3%, faster than sales. ¹
• Net debt rose to 37.9% of the company's total value, from 34.0% a year earlier, though debt against yearly earnings held steady. ¹

What the company expects

• Realty Income raised its 2026 forecast for cash profit per share to $4.45-$4.46, from $4.44-$4.45 three months ago - a one-cent rise, and the second raise in a row. ¹
• It lowered its forecast for 2026 accounting profit per share to $1.55-$1.56, from $1.59-$1.60, without giving a reason. ¹

Our verdict on the quarter

A very strong report. The company raised its yearly cash-profit forecast for the second time running and sales grew about 10%, though the raise was just a cent, its accounting-profit forecast was trimmed after past write-downs, and the growth leans on more borrowing at thinner returns.

The results as published

• The results release itself
• The filing it came with (SEC)
• The previous results, for what it forecast then

Notes

1. Realty Income's results release, 2 November 2026: sec.gov. ↩
2. Nasdaq's earnings calendar, 2 November 2026. ↩