Well covered. A monthly payer at $0.271 a share for October 2026, an annualized $3.252 that is 3.4% above the October 2025 rate. In Q3 2026 AFFO was $1.15 a share, up 4.9%, and the declared dividends took about 69% of it. The watch item is funding: growth is bought substantially with new equity — shares outstanding rose from 120.0 million at the end of 2025 to 130.1 million at September 30, 2026 — so AFFO per share, not total AFFO, is the line that has to keep up. Tenant quality is the offset: 65.1% of annualized base rent came from investment-grade tenants. For a REIT, the House reads AFFO payout — never the EPS payout, which depreciation makes meaningless.
Key risk: Equity-funded growth that stops earning its share count: if properties bought with new shares add total AFFO but not AFFO per share, the cushion behind the monthly dividend thins even while the portfolio grows. A large tenant failure or a rise in vacancies lands on the same rent roll that pays the dividend.
Changes if: The AFFO payout pushes well past ~69%, reported net debt to recurring EBITDA rises past 4.8×, or the lease base weakens — shorter WALE, falling occupancy, or the investment-grade share of rent dropping below 65.1%. The cushion is the verdict.
- ✓AFFO coverage check: About 69% of AFFO paid out in Q3 2026 — $0.267 a month declared for July, August and September against AFFO of $1.15 a share — and about 70% for the first nine months. AFFO per share rose 4.9% in Q3, and full-year 2026 guidance was raised to $4.58–$4.59 a share.
- ✓Yield check: ~4.9% is earned — backed by a 7.8-year weighted-average lease term at 99.8% leased across 2,888 properties, with 65.1% of annualized base rent from investment-grade tenants and the largest tenant, Walmart, at 5.6% of rent, so it is not one tenant bet.
- !Leverage check: Net debt to recurring EBITDA was 4.8× at September 30, 2026, on net debt of about $3.7 billion, with fixed-charge coverage of 4.1×. The lower 3.9× figure is pro forma — it counts $657.1 million of forward equity not yet settled, so part of the low leverage reading depends on issuing those shares.
What this grade doesn't say: It screens the dividend only — covered, real, compounding. It says nothing about valuation or price: a well-covered payer can still be overpriced, and its price can still fall.