Realty Income Corporation operates as a publicly traded real estate investment trust listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol O, meaning it is not owned by a single individual. Instead, legal ownership is distributed among thousands of institutional investment funds, mutual funds, pension systems, and public retail shareholders. Major global asset management institutions—such as Vanguard Group and BlackRock—hold the largest aggregated equity stakes, while individual investors buy and sell shares freely on the open public market.