Two of the market's most popular income ETFs compared side-by-side. See which one fits your yield strategy.
What this means: Both O and STAG fall intoTier 3: Specialty. This suggests they share a similar risk profile and volatility expectation.
| Metric | O | STAG |
|---|---|---|
| Total Return (1Y) | 13.35% | 7.29% |
| NAV Change (1Y) | 8.35% | 3.53% |
| Max Drawdown | -15.41% | -23.71% |
| Beta | - | - |
* Returns include dividend reinvestment. Drawdown calculates peak-to-trough decline over trailing 12 months.
O and STAG Industrial are a relatively rare pairing: two REITs at the same DivAgent tier (Tier 3/Sector Specialties/Medium) that both pay monthly dividends. The comparison is less about which to buy and more about what differentiated exposure each provides — net-lease retail real estate versus industrial/warehouse logistics. Understanding the underlying property thesis is the key to allocating between them.
Realty Income's portfolio of 1,500+ properties centers on triple-net-lease retail: pharmacies (Walgreens, CVS), dollar stores (Dollar General, Dollar Tree), convenience stores (7-Eleven), and quick-service restaurants. These tenants are generally resilient to e-commerce disruption — you can't get a flu shot delivered to your door. STAG's ~600 properties are predominantly industrial: distribution centers, light manufacturing facilities, and warehouses used by logistics operators and e-commerce fulfillment networks. The two property types have structurally different demand drivers.
Realty Income is one of the largest REITs in the world by market capitalization, with investment-grade tenants representing the majority of its rent roll and an S&P credit rating of A-. Its 27+ year dividend growth streak through multiple recessions is a rare durability signal. STAG is a mid-cap REIT with a shorter history (IPO 2011) and a more diverse industrial tenant base that includes a higher proportion of smaller operators. O's dividend safety case is substantially stronger.
O currently yields approximately 4.8% at $67.56 per share — a full percentage point above STAG's 3.8% yield at $39.73. That yield gap reflects O's larger scale, stronger tenant credit, and more defensive property type. STAG investors accepting a lower current yield are implicitly betting on industrial real estate appreciation and rent growth driven by e-commerce logistics demand — a reasonable thesis, but one that carries more cyclical risk than O's necessity-retail focus.
Choose O if:
Choose STAG if:
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