NNN Stock: NNN REIT Dividend vs AFFO, Tenants and Debt (2026)

Is NNN the same as National Retail Properties?

Yes. EDGAR's record for CIK 751364 shows the company was named National Retail Properties, Inc. from May 2006 until April 27, 2023, and NNN REIT, Inc. since. The ticker is unchanged, NNN on the New York Stock Exchange, and so is the business: a Maryland REIT in Orlando, Florida that owns single-tenant, mostly triple-net leased properties (the tenant pays taxes, insurance and maintenance; our page on real triple-net lease clauses reads the contracts, including one that NNN REIT filed). Searches for “nnn stock”, “nnn reit” and “national retail properties” are the same company. The company's own site is nnnreit.com.

The filing status matters for anyone looking up the numbers: the latest 10-Q on EDGAR is for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, filed August 5, 2026 together with the Q2 earnings release. The 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2025 was filed on November 4, 2025, the same day as that quarter's release. As of October 17, 2026 the third-quarter 2026 10-Q is not filed, and we found no 8-K after August 17 (which announced two new directors). The company has not given a date in any filing we read, so everything below is as of June 30, 2026 unless stated.

The dividend against AFFO, quarter by quarter

NNN pays quarterly and raises once a year, with the declaration in July. The table puts each quarter's dividend next to the earnings measures the company reports. FFO is net earnings plus real estate depreciation, excluding gains on sales and adding back impairments; Core FFO also removes unusual items such as severance; AFFO adjusts for straight-line rent, stock compensation and other non-cash items. All three are non-GAAP measures defined by the company. The payout ratio is the company's own: total dividends paid as a percentage of AFFO.

Four readings the quote pages do not make.

The payout is stable at 66% to 70%, and it follows the raise. The dividend was $0.58 for the four quarters to Q2 2025, $0.60 for the four quarters Q3 2025 to Q2 2026, and $0.62 declared July 15, 2026, payable August 14 to holders of record July 31. For the full years the company states 68.2% for 2024 and 68.4% for 2025 ($2.29 and $2.36 a share against AFFO of $3.35 and $3.44). The Q2 2026 release says: “Paid a $0.60 quarterly dividend, representing a 5.2% annualized dividend yield and a 67% AFFO payout ratio as of June 30, 2026.” In dollars (our arithmetic), $113.6 million of dividends against $170.0 million of AFFO in Q2 is 66.8%, and AFFO left after the dividend was $56.4 million in the quarter and $108.6 million in the half.

On guidance the new dividend takes about 70%. The updated AFFO range is $3.55 to $3.59 and Core FFO $3.50 to $3.54. The $2.48 annual dividend is 69.5% of the AFFO midpoint of $3.57 and 70.5% of the Core FFO midpoint of $3.52 (our arithmetic). The company's own release prints the new annual rate as a 5.3% yield on the June 30 price. On the $47.17 last reported sale price printed in the August 6 prospectus supplement the yield is 5.26% (our arithmetic); that price is dated August 4, 2026 and is not current.

AFFO per share growth is not as smooth as the headline. The release says Core FFO and AFFO per diluted share grew 6.0% and 5.9% in Q2. But AFFO per share was flat in Q1 2026 ($0.87 against $0.87) and rose 2.9% in the half ($1.77 against $1.72, our arithmetic). Part of the reason is in the rental income footnote: lease termination fees were $2.4 million in the first half of 2026 against $10.5 million in the first half of 2025, which is $8.1 million of one-off income that left the base ($1,633 thousand in Q2 2026 against $2,248 thousand in Q2 2025, so most of the swing was in Q1, our arithmetic). The reconciliation does not subtract termination fees from AFFO, so on the assumption that they are inside it, the half excluding them is $1.76 a share against $1.66, up 5.7% (our arithmetic on diluted shares of 189.6 million and 187.1 million). Treat that as a reading of the table, not a company statement. On unrounded figures Q2 AFFO per share is $0.8966 against $0.8474, up 5.8% (our arithmetic).

The “37 years” has a precise meaning. The Q2 release says the July raise marks the 37th consecutive annual dividend increase (the ordinal is a superscript in the filing) and that “NNN is one of only three publicly traded real estate investment trusts to have increased its annual dividend for 37 or more consecutive years.” The count is of calendar-year dividends per share. The February 2026 release put the 2025 total at $2.36, a 3.1% increase, as the 36th. If $0.62 holds for the fourth quarter, 2026 dividends paid would be $2.44, up 3.4% on 2025 (our arithmetic). The 10-Q itself does not promise anything: it says “all future distributions will be declared and paid at the discretion of the Board of Directors.”

GAAP earnings do not cover the dividend, which is normal for a REIT with $1.49 a share of real estate depreciation in the guidance: net earnings were $1.01 per share in the first half against $1.20 of dividends (119%, our arithmetic). What pays the dividend is operating cash flow: $328.6 million in the first half against $227.1 million of dividends paid, 1.45 times (our arithmetic; 1.49 times a year earlier). After dividends, operating cash flow left $101.5 million in the half to fund $429.3 million of additions to real estate.

Guidance: three updates in 2026

The AFFO midpoint went from $3.55 to $3.56 to $3.57, and the high end moved only once, by one cent, in April. Against 2025 AFFO of $3.44 the midpoint implies growth of 3.8% (our arithmetic). The August update raised the acquisition range by $150 million at both ends and lowered the net earnings range while real estate depreciation per share guidance went up from $1.46 to $1.49. General and administrative expense guidance is unchanged at $53 to $55 million; Q2 G&A was $14.1 million against $11.2 million a year earlier, up 25%, and first-half G&A of $28.2 million annualizes to $56.3 million, above the top of the range (our arithmetic).

What changed in the portfolio over seven quarters

Occupancy is at the top of the range: 99.1%, up 50 basis points in the quarter and 110 basis points in a year, against a low of 97.5% at September 30, 2025 among these seven dates. ABR grew 7.3% in a year and by $24.5 million in Q2 alone (our arithmetic), while properties rose by 63 in the quarter. The 10-Q counts 35 vacant properties, less than 1% of properties and gross leasable area, plus 19 properties held for sale at $24.6 million. Impairments are not trivial: $8.1 million in Q2 and $18.7 million in the half, against $6.0 million a year earlier, which AFFO excludes. Lease length has held at about 10 years because new acquisitions have carried 17.8 to 19.0 years of term in each of the last six quarters.

The first quarter of 2025 shows what a large tenant problem looks like: the release says NNN “initiated eviction proceedings for 64 properties leased to a mid-western restaurant operator” and had taken back possession of all 64 by March 31, 2025, with 31 re-leased. The occupancy dip to 97.7% at March 31, 2025 followed that episode; the filings we read do not attribute the 97.5% of September 2025 to any single cause.

Who pays the rent

NNN names its top 20 tenants every quarter. These are the first ten, against the previous year-end, as a percentage of ABR. The properties column is the June 30, 2026 count.

Every percentage fell or held. ABR grew 3.3% in six months (from $928.1 million to $959.1 million, our arithmetic), so a tenant whose rent grew less than that loses share without losing rent. Individual leases are small: the 10-K says annual base rents range from $11,000 to $4,085,000, an average of $256,000. A year ago the 20th tenant was Bob Evans Restaurants at 1.2% of ABR with 105 properties; it is not in the top 20 at December 31, 2025 or June 30, 2026.

Industry and geography matter as much as the names:

The mix has shifted in two years from restaurants and convenience stores toward automotive service (up 1.5 points since December 2024) and dealerships. Theaters are another 3.5% of ABR, so entertainment and theaters together are 10.8% (our arithmetic). By state, Texas is 17.9% (596 properties), Florida 8.7%, Illinois 5.2%, Georgia 4.4% and Ohio 4.2%; Texas and Florida together are 26.6% (our arithmetic). Compare this with a Realty Income or W. P. Carey portfolio: NNN has fewer industries and no international rent, which is simpler to read and less diversified.

Cash-basis tenants: the credit signal

When NNN decides that collecting a tenant's rent is no longer probable, it reverses accrued rent and books income only as cash arrives. In the 10-Q's words: “At this point, a tenant is deemed cash basis for accounting purposes.” The company tables the count and share every quarter.

At 4.0% of ABR that is about $38 million of annual rent (our arithmetic, 4.0% of $959.1 million), and it has not fallen below 3.4% in nine reported dates. These tenants still pay: NNN recognized $19.1 million of rental income from them in the first half of 2026 ($15.3 million a year earlier), $9.5 million of it in Q2. The 10-Q adds that as of July 31, 2026 less than one percent of ABR was leased to one tenant in Chapter 11. The filing does not name the cash-basis tenants.

Lease expirations: 19.8% of rent through 2030

NNN's table counts lease expirations by calendar year as a percentage of ABR. Its lease term excludes tenants' renewal options, so these are contractual end dates, not departures.

Through 2030 the buckets add to 19.8% of ABR, through 2031 to 28.5% (our arithmetic), and half of rent is on leases that run to 2036 or later. The 2026 bucket was 2.1% of ABR ($19.5 million) at December 31 and is 0.5% ($4.8 million) now; 2027 went from 6.3% ($58.5 million) to 5.8% ($55.6 million) (our arithmetic from rounded percentages and ABR). That is renewals, early extensions and sales working through the near years, and it also reflects growth in the denominator. The 2031 bucket is the largest single year at 8.7%, up from 7.9% in six months as acquisitions with 2031 expirations were added or leases were extended into that year; the table does not say which.

Buying at 7.4%, selling at 6.5%: acquisitions and dispositions

The company reports an initial cash cap rate on acquisitions (initial cash annual base rent divided by the purchase price) and, for dispositions, cash annual rent divided by gross proceeds for the occupied properties sold. Vacant properties carry no cap rate. The table puts six quarters side by side.

Two things the headline cap rates hide. First, the spread: new money goes in at about 7.4% and the occupied properties sold came out at about 6.5% on average (weighted by net proceeds, our arithmetic; the company computes the rate on gross proceeds), but the quarterly figure swings between 4.9% and 7.6% on $9 million to $30 million of sales. Second, vacancies: 102 of the 167 properties sold were vacant, and they were 55.3% of all proceeds. The Q2 2025 release words the disposition cap rate “for the properties” where later releases say “for the occupied properties”; the numbers are comparable but the earlier wording is looser.

Acquisition lease terms are long, 17.8 to 19.0 years in each quarter. The Q2 2026 release says the first half of 2026 closed $436.4 million at 7.4%; guidance of $700 million to $800 million for the year leaves $264 million to $364 million for the second half (our arithmetic).

Debt: $5.1 billion, what comes due, and what refinancing could cost

At June 30, 2026 gross debt was $5,078.5 million: $4,550.0 million of unsecured notes, a $500.0 million term loan and $28.5 million drawn on a $1.2 billion revolver. Nothing is secured. The company reports a weighted average rate of 4.2%, a weighted average maturity of 10.1 years, net debt of 5.7 times annualized EBITDAre (5.4 times including unsettled forward equity), 42.5% gross debt to gross assets, EBITDAre to fixed charges of 4.1 times, and $1.4 billion of liquidity. The covenant table shows a leverage ratio of 0.38 against a maximum of 0.60 and fixed charge coverage of 4.08 against a minimum of 1.50.

Three points from the filings.

• $1,178.5 million (23.2% of gross debt) is due by the end of 2028, and $2,078.5 million (40.9%) by the end of 2030 (our arithmetic: the notes plus the revolver, then the term loan and the 2030 notes). The nearest is $350 million in December 2026. The company's own release calls its 10.1-year average maturity “sector-leading.” The 10-Q's contractual obligations table shows $452.4 million due in the rest of 2026 including interest.
• The cheap notes are the ones coming due. Notes due December 2026, October 2027, October 2028 and April 2030 total $1,550.0 million at a 3.5% average effective rate (our arithmetic), and the 2030 notes carry 2.5%. The effective rate on the most recent issue, the February 2031 notes, is 4.766%, and on the 2033 and 2034 notes it is 5.7% to 5.9%. As a sensitivity and not a forecast: refinancing the $350 million of December 2026 notes at 4.766% would add about $3.6 million a year of interest, $0.019 a share; refinancing all four series at 4.766% would add about $18.9 million, $0.10 a share, 2.8% of the $3.57 AFFO midpoint (our arithmetic on 189.6 million diluted shares). Q2 interest expense was already $53.5 million against $49.3 million, up 8.5% against revenue up 7.7% (our arithmetic).
• Floating-rate exposure is small: 2.5% of debt, per the Q2 release. The term loan was upsized by $200 million to $500 million on June 23, 2026 and its margin cut to SOFR plus 0.80%, with a total of $400 million of forward-starting swaps fixing SOFR at 3.30%.

Shares: the ATM and what is waiting to settle

Shares outstanding were 191,931,110 at June 30, 2026 against 189,937,404 at December 31, 2025, up 1.0% in six months (our arithmetic). Diluted weighted average shares rose 1.4% in a year (189.6 million against 187.1 million) while AFFO dollars rose 7.3% ($170.0 million against $158.5 million), which is how a 7.3% rise in AFFO dollars becomes 5.8% per share (our arithmetic).

The mechanism is the at-the-market program (ATM) with forward sales. In Q2 2026 NNN entered forward sale agreements for 5,999,528 shares at a weighted average $45.91, and issued 1,681,785 shares for $74.0 million of net proceeds. At June 30, 5,999,528 shares were still subject to forward sale agreements, expected to raise about $272.1 million when physically settled, no later than July 2027; that is 3.1% of shares outstanding (our arithmetic). The company says it currently intends to settle them with shares. In all of 2025 it issued 1,992,955 shares, raising $85.4 million of gross proceeds at an average $42.86; the 7,666,760 shares sold under forwards in the first half of 2026 alone are 3.8 times that share count (our arithmetic).

Two filings after June 30 matter. On August 6, 2026 NNN entered a new equity distribution agreement for up to 25,000,000 shares (13.0% of the shares outstanding, our arithmetic) with agents paid a commission of no more than 2.0%, and terminated the August 2023 program, which had 17,500,000 shares of capacity and 3,253,247 left at June 30. The $47.17 last reported sale price on August 4 compares with the $45.91 average price on the forwards signed in Q2. The company shows what unsettled forwards do to leverage: net debt of 5.7 times EBITDAre becomes 5.4 times pro forma.

NNN against a private or non-traded net-lease vehicle

Readers of our pages on DSTs, ExchangeRight and the Fortress Net Lease REIT often want the listed benchmark. NNN is a clean one because it publishes, every quarter, the items a private sponsor often does not. The table lists what NNN discloses and the same question to put to a private vehicle; for how listed and non-traded REITs differ in exit and pricing, see our comparison.

The comparison does not say listed is better. A listed REIT's price moves every day with the market even when rent does not, and a private vehicle's appraised value moves less because it is appraised. What it does show is the checklist: if a private vehicle cannot answer these rows the way NNN does, that is information. Our page on DST fees from Form D and the 721 exchange page cover the structure on the private side.

What a holder or reader can do with this

This page is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice. What the filings let you check yourself:

• Track the payout through the raise cycle, not at one date. The company's payout was 66% to 70% in each of seven quarters and rises the quarter after a raise. A reading above about 70% outside Q3 would be a change from this pattern.
• Read AFFO growth with termination fees next to it. Q2's 5.9% and the first half's 2.9% are the same company; the difference is $8.1 million of lease termination income in the first half of 2025.
• Watch five dated items. The Q3 2026 10-Q (last year's was November 4); the October dividend declaration for the fourth quarter (declared October 14 last year); the $350 million of notes due December 2026 and how they are refinanced; the 5,999,528 forward shares expected to settle by July 2027; and the cash-basis share (4.0%).
• Size the position. NNN is one REIT with one dividend. 17.4% of its rent comes from five tenants, 62.2% from six lines of trade and 17.9% from one state. The dividend has been raised for 37 years on the company's own count; the 10-Q says future distributions are at the board's discretion.

If a large part of your income depends on this one payer, or you are choosing between a listed REIT and a private net-lease vehicle for the same money, a conversation with a qualified adviser about how it fits with the rest of your holdings may be worth having.

FAQ

All figures are from NNN REIT, Inc. (SEC CIK 751364) filings read on EDGAR on October 17, 2026: Form 10-K for 2025 (accession 0001193125-26-045617); Forms 10-Q for the quarters ended September 30, 2025 (0001193125-25-263643), March 31, 2026 (0001193125-26-194215) and June 30, 2026 (0001193125-26-333967, filed August 5, 2026); earnings releases attached to Forms 8-K for Q4 2024 (0000950170-25-017471), Q1 2025 (0000950170-25-061453), Q2 2025 (0000950170-25-102425), Q3 2025 (0001193125-25-263635), Q4 2025 (0001193125-26-045612), Q1 2026 (0001193125-26-194205) and Q2 2026 (0001193125-26-333958); Form 8-K of June 23, 2026 on the term loan amendment (0001193125-26-279573) and of August 7, 2026 on the equity distribution agreement (0001193125-26-338984); the prospectus supplement of August 6, 2026 (0001193125-26-338365); and EDGAR's submissions record for the former name. Payout ratios in the table are the company's; percentages of AFFO, sums, weighted averages, growth rates and the refinancing sensitivity are our arithmetic from those rows. FFO, Core FFO, AFFO, EBITDAre and ABR are the company's non-GAAP definitions. The $47.17 share price is the one printed in the August 6 prospectus supplement and is not current. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.