The Print

Agree Realty (NYSE:ADC) and NNN REIT (NYSE:NNN) entered the second half with annualized dividend payout ratios separated by less than half a percentage point.

Agree’s $3.204 annualized dividend equals 70.0% of the midpoint of its revised 2026 AFFO guidance. NNN’s newly raised $2.48 dividend equals 69.5% of its updated midpoint.

Agree reported AFFO of $1.14 a share on July 30, up 7.4% from a year earlier. NNN reported $0.90 on August 5, up 5.9%, after its board had declared a $0.62 third-quarter dividend on July 15. The increase was 3.3% and marked its 37th consecutive annual raise.

The payout ratios are nearly identical. The financing books beneath them are not.

Agree Raised Investment Guidance To $1.8 Billion And Pre-Sold The Equity

Agree invested $502 million in 102 retail net-lease properties during the quarter and $925 million in 187 properties through June. It raised full-year investment guidance to $1.6–$1.8 billion from $1.4–$1.6 billion, and AFFO guidance to $4.57–$4.59.

The portfolio finished 99.8% leased.

Roughly $686 million of forward equity was raised through the ATM program in the first half. What has not settled is larger: 14,484,843 shares carrying anticipated net proceeds of about $1.085 billion. The agreements must be settled by specified dates between October 2026 and April 2028.

That unsettled balance equals about 64% of the midpoint of the year’s investment guidance. Agree reports Net Debt to Recurring EBITDA of 5.2 times and 3.7 times pro forma after deducting that same $1.085 billion from net debt. The same unsettled equity is also counted inside the company’s roughly $1.9 billion of liquidity, alongside $753.0 million of revolver availability and $21.2 million of cash.

NNN Raised Its Term Loan To $500 Million And Reported Two 10.1-Year Averages

NNN acquired 89 properties for $291.0 million in the quarter and 130 for $436.4 million through June. It raised acquisition guidance to $700–$800 million from $550–$650 million, and AFFO guidance to $3.55–$3.59.

Occupancy was 99.1%.

NNN also carries forward equity, at a different scale: 5,999,528 shares with anticipated net proceeds of about $272.1 million. That is roughly a quarter of Agree’s unsettled balance, and about 36% of NNN’s acquisition-guidance midpoint. Alongside it, the company exercised a $200 million incremental option on its unsecured term loan, taking the facility to $500 million maturing February 2029 with two one-year extension options.

The margin is SOFR plus 80 basis points at current ratings. Swaps fix the SOFR component at a weighted-average 3.30% on $400 million of the loan, and NNN reports a 4.126% effective rate on the full facility. The stated use is general corporate purposes, so the proceeds are not tied here to any particular acquisition.

Two reported averages land on the same number. The portfolio’s weighted-average remaining lease term was 10.1 years, and the weighted-average debt maturity was also 10.1 years.

Equal averages do not mean the lease-expiration and debt-maturity schedules match. Different distributions produce the same mean. The release establishes only that the two averages matched at June 30. Gross debt was $5.079 billion at a 4.2% weighted-average rate with 2.5% floating.

What Cannot Be Compared, And What Can

Three figures invite a side-by-side the disclosures do not support.

The cap rates are built differently. Agree computes a weighted-average capitalization rate from straight-line contractual rents plus anticipated net tenant recoveries. NNN reports an initial cash cap rate, being initial cash annual base rent divided by purchase price. Agree’s 7.0% and NNN’s 7.3% have different numerators.

The leverage ratios are defined differently. Agree reports Net Debt to Recurring EBITDA at 5.2 times actual and 3.7 times pro forma. NNN reports Net Debt to annualized EBITDAre at 5.7 times actual and 5.4 times pro forma. Within each issuer the effect of unsettled forward equity is readable. The levels are not comparable across the two.

The issuer-disclosed investment-grade percentages cannot be compared from these releases. Agree reports that 65.8% of annualized base rent comes from investment-grade tenants and defines the term against S&P, Moody’s, Fitch and NAIC ratings. NNN’s second-quarter release does not publish a portfolio investment-grade percentage. The two releases do not support a like-for-like reading on that measure.

Tenant concentration can be described, though the base-rent definitions still differ. Agree’s largest tenant is Walmart at 5.8% of an ABR computed on a straight-line basis. NNN’s is 7-Eleven at 4.2% of an ABR defined as monthly cash base rent multiplied by twelve.

Both companies reported AFFO one cent above Core FFO. Their reconciliation tables carry different adjustments, so the matching one-cent gaps do not establish a common cause.

The guidance-based payout ratios show no visible strain on the reported AFFO measures. What differs is the capital each company had already priced at June 30.

Agree has forward sale agreements covering about $1.085 billion of anticipated equity proceeds that have not settled. NNN has fixed the SOFR component on $400 million of its $500 million term loan. The payout ratios are half a point apart. The financing books beneath them are not.

Source: Agree Realty second-quarter 2026 earnings release, July 30, 2026; NNN REIT second-quarter 2026 earnings release, August 5, 2026. Guidance ranges as reported by each issuer. Payout calculations by Dividend Forensics Bureau from company-reported per-share figures. Agree reports a monthly dividend; the annualized figure used here is twelve monthly declarations. Both issuers define AFFO, capitalization rate and leverage on their own bases, and those measures are not strictly comparable between them.

The author holds no position in any security mentioned. Structural research, not personalized investment advice.

Further dividend structure research is published at dividendforensics.com.

Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.