Well covered — and still raising. A quarterly payer at $0.3125 a share, $1.25 annualized, raised 7% year over year. Coverage is comfortable on every line Tanger reports: Core FFO was $0.64 a share in the second quarter of 2026, up from $0.58 a year earlier, and $1.23 for the first half, while the company's funds-available-for-distribution payout ratio was 64% for the first half — Tanger's FAD is its AFFO-equivalent line, after capital and leasing costs. Occupancy held at 96.6% at June 30, 2026, same-center net operating income rose 3.5% in the quarter, and net debt to adjusted EBITDAre was 4.7× with about $1.0 billion of liquidity. For a REIT, the House reads AFFO payout — never the EPS payout, which depreciation makes meaningless — and on that line this dividend is covered with room to spare.
Key risk: Outlet retail concentration — a tenant bankruptcy wave like the one behind the quarter's strategic backfills would show up first in occupancy, which slipped from 97.0% at March 31 to 96.6% at June 30, 2026, before it reached the payout.
Changes if: The FAD payout pushes well past 64%, occupancy falls further instead of recovering from the backfill dip, or net debt to adjusted EBITDAre rises past 4.7×. The cushion and the occupancy recovery are the verdict.
- ✓AFFO coverage check: 64% of funds available for distribution paid out in the first half of 2026 — Tanger's FAD is the AFFO-equivalent line after capital expenditures and leasing costs — leaves a real cushion, and Core FFO of $0.64 in the second quarter covered the $0.3125 dividend nearly twice over.
- ✓Yield check: 3.43% is earned, not stretched — 96.6% occupancy across the outlet and open-air portfolio, same-center NOI up 3.5% in the quarter, and tenant sales per square foot up 5% year over year to $487.
- ✓Growth check: The dividend keeps rising: $0.3125 is up 7% on the $0.2925 paid a year earlier, following raises in each of the prior years, and Core FFO grew 10.3% year over year in the second quarter. This is the compounding leg the House looks for.
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.