Realty Income (NYSE: O), one of the world's largest real estate investment trusts (REITs) with 15,500 commercial properties, has raised its dividend 136 times since its public debut. It's also one of the few REITs that pays monthly dividends, and it pays a hefty forward yield of 6%.

What will happen if you invest $100 monthly in Realty Income for 10 years?

Over the past 10 years, Realty Income generated a total return of 33% with reinvested dividends. A $12,000 investment would have grown to about $16,000.

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But if you had spread that $12,000 investment into $100 monthly investments over 10 years and reinvested your monthly dividends, your investment would be worth $21,450 today. That big gap can be attributed to the magic of dollar-cost averaging and compound returns.

By always investing $100 in Realty Income every month, you'd have bought more shares when its price was lower and fewer shares when it was higher. That dollar-cost averaging approach smoothed out your long-term gains, especially during the interest rate spikes that depressed the stock price. Your reinvested dividends also contributed to those compound gains.

Realty Income should remain a reliable dividend stock for income-oriented investors over the next ten years. But if you simply buy and forget it -- instead of reinvesting and compounding your returns monthly -- you'll likely leave a lot of money on the table.

Leo Sun has positions in Realty Income. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Realty Income. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

X-Energy (NASDAQ: XE), a developer of small modular reactors (SMRs), went public at $23 per share on April 24. But today, it trades at just $14. Let's see why X-Energy's stock dropped below its IPO price, and how it compares to three other popular nuclear energy stocks: Oklo (NYSE: OKLO), NuScale (NYSE: SMR), and BWX Technologies (NYSE: BWXT).

What does X-Energy do?

X-Energy's Xe-100 SMRs are much smaller than conventional nuclear reactors. A single Xe-100 generates only 80 MWe, whereas traditional reactors generate over 1,000 MWe. However, the Xe-100 can be deployed in modular "four packs" to expand a plant's capacity.

Image source: Getty Images.

SMRs can be more easily deployed in remote and off-grid areas. It's already landed major deals with Amazon, Dow, and Energy Northwest (a joint operating agency for public utility districts and municipalities across Washington state).

X-Energy has been scaling up its fuel production capacity to meet that demand, but it doesn't expect to deploy its first commercial reactors until the early 2030s. In 2025, the company still generated $109 million in revenue from its engineering services, government grants, and technical partnerships, while posting a net loss of $390 million. For 2026, analysts expect its revenue to rise another 94% to $212 million as its net loss widens to $430 million.

With a market cap of $4.1 billion, X-Energy trades at 19 times this year's sales. So even though it's dropped nearly 40% below its IPO price, it still can't be considered a bargain.

How does X-Energy compare to Oklo, NuScale, and BWX?

Oklo, NuScale, and BWX are also developing smaller nuclear reactors, but they've all adopted different technologies and strategies. Oklo develops microreactors, which are even smaller and only generate 1.5 MWe. They can also be chained together in their modular plants.

NuScale, which produces a 77 MWe SMR, is more comparable to X-Energy. But NuScale still uses conventional light-water reactor (LWR) technology and standard uranium rods. In contrast, X-Energy's Xe-100 uses high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) that consume TRISO (tri-structural isotropic) particle fuel. That key difference enables the Xe-100 to withstand much higher temperatures than NuScale's water-cooled SMRs.

Even though HTGR microreactors could be much safer than conventional reactors, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has only approved LWR designs (including NuScale's) so far. NuScale also expects to deploy its first microreactors in the early 2030s.

BWX -- the only large-scale manufacturer of specialized nuclear components, fuel systems, and naval reactor systems in North America -- sells smaller, transportable microreactors that generate 1-5 MWe. But that's only a small part of its massive business, which generates most of its revenue by selling reactors, fuel, and nuclear components to the U.S. Navy.

Is X-Energy's stock worth buying today?

X-Energy has several glaring weaknesses. First, it depends on a specific TRISO pebble fuel that isn't as readily available as uranium. To scale its business, it needs to ramp up the production of that proprietary fuel through its TRISO-X subsidiary.

Second, it trails far behind NuScale and other LWR SMR makers in regulatory clearance. Since TRISO pebble fuel is a newer and untested technology, the NRC will need to view it through a different lens before approving its first reactor designs. Lastly, X-Energy will remain overshadowed by bigger and more profitable nuclear giants -- like BWX -- in this unforgiving market for speculative, unprofitable companies trading at premium valuations.

While X-Energy's stock might take off once it clears its regulatory hurdles, increases its fuel production, and starts deploying its first commercial reactors, it will remain under pressure as long as rising Treasury yields continue to drive investors away from riskier stocks. Therefore, I'd avoid X-Energy and stick with more resilient market leaders like BWX.

Leo Sun has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and BWX Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends NuScale Power. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

With the 10-Year Treasury yield hovering near 5.3%, it might seem like a risky time to buy high-yielding dividend stocks in the financial sector. In this environment, many investors would rather buy a low-risk Treasury or CD instead of a dividend stock.

However, there are still plenty of high-yielding financial stocks that are well-insulated from higher interest rates and Treasury yields. Let's take a look at three of them -- Ares Capital (NASDAQ: ARCC), Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM), and Strategy's (NASDAQ: MSTR) STRF shares (NASDAQ: STRF) -- and see why they're still worth buying.

Image source: Getty Images.

Ares Capital

Ares Capital, the world's largest business development corporation (BDC), finances smaller "middle market" companies that struggle to secure loans from conventional banks. In exchange for taking on that higher risk, it charges higher interest rates.

To reduce its risk, it spreads its $29.3 billion investment portfolio across 619 companies. It also allocates 59% of its portfolio to first-lien secured loans and 4% to second-lien secured loans.

Like banks, BDCs generally benefit from higher interest rates, which boost their net interest income. But those rates can't jump too high, or they'll adversely impact their portfolio companies. BDCs also must pay out at least 90% of their taxable income as dividends to maintain a lower tax rate. That's why Ares pays a high forward yield of 10%.

Analysts expect Ares' EPS to rise only 1% to $1.93 next year, which will cover its forward dividend rate of $1.92. At $19, its stock looks like a bargain at 10 times next year's earnings. So if you're looking for a simple, rate-resistant income play, Ares checks the right boxes.

Brookfield Asset Management

Brookfield Asset Management, one of the world's largest asset managers, was spun off from the financial conglomerate Brookfield Corporation (NYSE: BN) in 2022.

As a stand-alone company, Brookfield Asset Management operates as a "pure play" asset manager that raises the capital for Brookfield Corporation's investments and manages them. It doesn't actually buy or own Brookfield's assets -- it merely holds the rights to manage those properties and all the capital pooled together by its parent company and other investors. That business model also makes it more resistant to higher interest rates than its parent company.

Brookfield Asset Management is valued by its fee-related earnings (FRE) per share, or the recurring fees that fund its dividends. Its FRE per share rose 22% in 2025, and analysts expect that figure to rise 14%-17% to $2.10-$2.15 per share in 2026.

That should easily cover its forward dividend rate of $2.01 per share, which translates to a forward yield of 4.5%. At $44, it looks reasonably valued at 21 times this year's FRE per share.

Strategy's STRF shares

Strategy, the world's largest corporate holder of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), issued four classes of preferred stock last year. All four of these stocks pay high dividends, but "Strife" (STRF) -- which was launched last March -- is arguably the safest.

Strife ranks first in seniority among Strategy's four classes of preferred shares, and it's junior only to its corporate debt. It pays a fixed 10% annual dividend every quarter, and it's cumulative -- which means that any missed payments will accrue and must be repaid with step-up penalties before Strategy can resume its other dividend payments.

Strategy initially issued these preferred shares to fund its Bitcoin purchases, but it also periodically sells its Bitcoin holdings to fund the dividends. So if you're bullish on Bitcoin but also want to earn some extra income from Strategy's Bitcoin hoarding strategy, Strategy's STRF stock -- which has risen 13% since its launch -- might be a hidden high-yield gem.

Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ares Capital, Bitcoin, Brookfield Asset Management, and Brookfield Corporation. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.