2 Dividend Stocks to Double Up on Right Now | The Motley Fool

Market downturns are a normal and necessary part of the investing cycle. Long-term investors accept that their portfolios will experience swings. Instead of fearing volatility, view it as the price you pay for potentially higher long-term returns. As a retail investor, you can't control interest rates, geopolitical events, or daily stock movements, but you can control your asset allocation, your discipline in sticking to your long-term plan, and your emotional reactions to market noise. If you're looking for dividend stocks to add to your portfolio as you build out a profitable basket of stocks, you've come to the right place. Here are two dividend stocks that you might want to consider scooping up right now. Image source: Getty Images. 1. Realty Income Realty Income ( O +0.04%) pays a dividend on a monthly basis and has paid 666 consecutive monthly dividends to date. That's a pretty impressive track record, especially when you consider that the company has increased its dividend 133 times since its 1994 NYSE listing, and executed 113 consecutive quarterly increases. The stock yields just under 6% based on current share prices. It's delivered a total return of about 80% for investors over the trailing decade. Realty Income's model involves buying single-tenant commercial properties and leasing them long-term with triple-net ( NNN ) leases. This means that tenants pay taxes, insurance, and maintenance, which also reduces Realty Income's costs to support its profitability and stable, monthly dividends. The real estate investment trust ( REIT) targets essential, non-discretionary businesses. It also offers sale-leasebacks to provide capital for operators. Top tenants include grocery, discount, convenience, and fitness operators like Dollar General , 7-Eleven, Walgreens, LA Fitness, AMC , FedEx , Family Dollar, CVS Pharmacy, and Home Depot . NYSE: O Key Data Points As one of the largest net lease REITs, Realty Income has a strong, investment-grade-rated balance sheet , which affords it easy and low-cost access to capital markets. This scale allows it to pursue large acquisition deals that are often unavailable to smaller competitors. Realty Income is actively expanding into European real estate markets, which recently accounted for a significant portion of its investment volume and are offering higher initial cash yields compared to U.S. properties. The company is operating in eight European countries, including the U.K., Spain, Ireland, and Poland. In the third quarter of 2025, Europe accounted for $1 billion (about 72%) of the company's total investment volume, compared to $380 million invested domestically. European properties offer an initial weighted average cash yield of approximately 8% to Realty Income's portfolio, which is a meaningful premium to the roughly 7% yield on new U.S. property acquisitions. In Q3 2025, Realty Income's revenue reached $1.47 billion, up 10.5% year over year, and it delivered stable portfolio performance with 98.7% occupancy. Adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share ($1.08) met analyst forecasts, and this metric was up single digits from the prior year. This top dividend stock looks like it could be a smart buy right now. 2. PepsiCo...

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