W.P. Carey (WPC) vs. Its Competitors Critical Contrast

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

73.7% of W.P. Carey shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.2% of shares of all “Diversified REITs” companies are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of W.P. Carey shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 12.4% of shares of all “Diversified REITs” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for W.P. Carey and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	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 presently has a consensus target price of $76.79, indicating 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 possible upside, research analysts plainly believe W.P. Carey is more favorable than its peers.

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 peers have a beta of 1.44, meaning that their average stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares W.P. Carey and its peers’ 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%

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 raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Summary

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

About W.P. Carey

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.