One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$112.65 our estimate vs market $65.29
Wall Street consensus: $74.07 (-34.2% lower than our fair-value estimate)
42% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
W. P. Carey Inc.
WPC · NYQ · Real Estate · REIT - Diversified
Current price
$65.29
52-week range
$62.19 - $77.22
Market cap
$15.02B
Balance sheet
Stretched
2.99x Stretched
Net debt $8.63B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 6.5% last year.
- Reward Returns 7.8% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
- Risk Net debt grew 11.1% over 3 years.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 1.0% (peer median: 1.1%).
What this company does
W. P. Carey Inc.
W. P. Carey Inc. is a company that owns and manages a lot of large commercial buildings, like warehouses and stores, which they then lease out to other businesses. The money mainly comes from rent payments from these businesses, and this is important because it provides a steady stream of income, similar to a landlord collecting rent. They focus on long-term leases with built-in rent increases, which helps their revenue grow over time.
How the company got here
W. P. Carey Inc. was founded in 1973 by William Polk Carey, who saw an opportunity in real estate investment early on. He pioneered the use of sale-leaseback transactions, a strategy where a company sells its property to an investor and then leases it back, allowing the company to free up cash while continuing to use the property. Over the decades, the company grew by acquiring income-producing properties under long-term net lease agreements, which provided predictable revenue. In 1998, W. P. Carey went public, and in 2012, it converted to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) structure, a common setup for real estate companies that own and operate income-producing properties. The company has since expanded through mergers and strategic moves, including a significant spin-off of its office properties in 2023 to focus on other sectors.
What it actually does
W. P. Carey Inc. is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and manages a large portfolio of commercial properties. Think of them as a landlord for businesses, but with a specific focus on 'net leases.' In a net lease arrangement, the tenant not only pays rent but also covers most of the property's operating expenses, such as property taxes, insurance, and maintenance. This means W. P. Carey acts more like an investor in real estate assets rather than an active property manager. Their properties are typically leased to a single tenant, and these leases are often long-term, providing a stable and predictable income stream for the company.
Industrial and Warehouse Properties
This segment is a significant part of W. P. Carey's business, focusing on properties used for manufacturing, storage, and distribution. These are often large, single-tenant buildings that are critical for a company's operations. The demand for these types of properties is driven by the growth in e-commerce and the need for efficient supply chains. W. P. Carey generates revenue by collecting rent from the businesses that occupy these industrial and warehouse spaces under long-term net leases.
Retail Properties
W. P. Carey also invests in retail properties, which include spaces leased to various types of businesses, from large supermarkets to smaller shops. These properties are also typically leased on a net lease basis, meaning the retail tenants are responsible for expenses like property taxes and maintenance. The company's focus here is on operationally critical retail locations that are essential for the tenants' businesses, providing a steady stream of rental income.
Self-Storage Properties
This segment involves properties dedicated to self-storage units, where individuals and businesses can rent space to store their belongings. Like their other properties, these are leased to tenants under net lease agreements. The self-storage sector can offer diversification to W. P. Carey's portfolio, and the demand is often driven by factors like population growth and changing living situations.
What management is betting on now
W. P. Carey's management is focused on improving the quality of their real estate portfolio while maintaining financial flexibility. They are strategically shifting away from office properties and concentrating on industrial, warehouse, retail, and self-storage assets that are considered 'mission-critical' to their tenants' operations. This means they are prioritizing properties that are essential for a business to function, aiming for long-term leases with built-in rent increases, often tied to inflation. They are also actively managing their capital by selling non-core assets and reinvesting in properties that offer better growth potential and stability, especially in the U.S. and Europe.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
Revenue
$468.30M
Net income
$140.95M
Diluted EPS
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Operating cash flow
$322.20M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Revenue
$461.06M
Net income
$185.39M
Diluted EPS
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Operating cash flow
$333.13M
Free cash flow
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Revenue
$454.51M
Net income
$176.30M
Diluted EPS
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Operating cash flow
$283.24M
Free cash flow
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Revenue
$444.55M
Net income
$148.32M
Diluted EPS
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Operating cash flow
$304.63M
Free cash flow
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Revenue
$431.30M
Net income
$141.00M
Diluted EPS
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Operating cash flow
$300.49M
Free cash flow
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Revenue
$430.78M
Net income
$51.22M
Diluted EPS
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Operating cash flow
$403.98M
Free cash flow
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Revenue
$409.86M
Net income
$125.82M
Diluted EPS
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Operating cash flow
$273.21M
Free cash flow
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Revenue
$406.17M
Net income
$47.02M
Diluted EPS
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Operating cash flow
$296.35M
Free cash flow
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Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $112.65 vs current price $65.29
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $74.07 (-34.2% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $112.65 a share — about 72.5% above today's price of $65.29, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $8.6B. Interest coverage 3.0x.
Net debt
$8.63B
Interest coverage
2.99x
W. P. Carey Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 3.0 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
WPC
BASELINE
W. P. Carey Inc.
Total debt $8.78B Interest coverage 2.99x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $32.11B Interest coverage 2.34x -22% vs WPC Carries about 1.3x less debt cushion than WPC.
Total debt $4.99B Interest coverage 2.79x -7% vs WPC Has roughly the same debt cushion as WPC.
Total debt $3.74B Interest coverage 2.58x -14% vs WPC Has roughly the same debt cushion as WPC.
Total debt $2.89B Interest coverage 2.42x -19% vs WPC Carries about 1.2x less debt cushion than WPC.
Total debt $2.44B Interest coverage 0.96x -68% vs WPC Carries about 3.1x less debt cushion than WPC.
What you should know
The case for and against WPC
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 6.5% last year.
-
Returns 7.8% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 4/10 years.
Risks
-
Net debt grew 11.1% over 3 years.
-
Insider ownership is only 1.0% (peer median: 1.1%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
22.67x
Forward P/E
20.74x
P/B
1.71x
P/S
8.09x
EV/EBITDA
15.15x
PEG ratio
1.47x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
94.9%
Operating margin
57.7%
Net margin
35.1%
ROE
7.8%
ROA
3.5%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.00x
Current ratio
1.64x
Quick ratio
1.57x
Total debt
$8.78B
Total cash
$153.19M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$1.83B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
6.6%
EPS TTM
2.88
EPS 5Y CAGR
-11.0%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$1.24B
Free CF TTM
$1.28B
FCF margin
70.1%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
5.8%
Payout ratio
129.9%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-30