Agree Realty (NYSE: ADC) is a prominent net-lease real estate investment trust (REIT). It has a solid history of dividend increases behind it, but most notable is the fairly rapid rate of dividend growth over the past decade. The roughly 17% rise in its stock price over the past three months is a positive in many ways, but for investors looking at the stock today, it could materially change their buying calculations.

As noted above, Agree is a net-lease REIT. That means that it owns single-tenant properties for which the tenants are responsible for most property-level operating costs. While any single property is high risk given that there's only one tenant, across a large enough portfolio the risk is pretty low. Agree is a great example of both sides of the risk equation here. In 2011, when it owned less than 100 properties, the bankruptcy of a single tenant resulted in a dividend cut. Today, with over 2,200 properties, the risk any single property or tenant poses to the dividend is pretty low.

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Source Fool.com