Analyzing W.P. Carey (WPC) and Its Competitors

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) is one of 111 public companies in the “Diversified REITs” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare W.P. Carey to related companies based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation and earnings.

Dividends

W.P. Carey pays an annual dividend of $3.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. W.P. Carey pays out 131.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Diversified REITs” companies pay a dividend yield of 6.9% and pay out 5,026.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. W.P. Carey has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for W.P. Carey and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
W.P. Carey	0	8	8	0	2.50
W.P. Carey Competitors	495	2474	1971	23	2.31

W.P. Carey currently has a consensus target price of $76.79, suggesting a potential upside of 18.06%. As a group, “Diversified REITs” companies have a potential upside of 8.27%. Given W.P. Carey’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe W.P. Carey is more favorable than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares W.P. Carey and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
W.P. Carey	35.60%	7.67%	3.54%
W.P. Carey Competitors	-35.53%	-4.25%	0.61%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares W.P. Carey and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
W.P. Carey	$1.72 billion	$466.36 million	22.43
W.P. Carey Competitors	$196.53 million	$18.17 million	5.95

W.P. Carey has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. W.P. Carey is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Volatility & Risk

W.P. Carey has a beta of 0.75, meaning that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W.P. Carey’s competitors have a beta of 1.44, meaning that their average stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

73.7% of W.P. Carey shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.2% of shares of all “Diversified REITs” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of W.P. Carey shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.4% of shares of all “Diversified REITs” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

W.P. Carey beats its competitors on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

W.P. Carey Company Profile

W. P. Carey ranks among the largest net lease REITs with a well-diversified portfolio of high-quality, operationally critical commercial real estate, which includes 1,424 net lease properties covering approximately 173 million square feet and a portfolio of 89 self-storage operating properties as of December 31, 2023. With offices in New York, London, Amsterdam and Dallas, the company remains focused on investing primarily in single-tenant, industrial, warehouse and retail properties located in the U.S. and Northern and Western Europe, under long-term net leases with built-in rent escalations.