Contrasting W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) and Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) and W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, risk, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Crown Castle and W. P. Carey”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crown Castle	$6.98 billion	6.05	$1.50 billion	$2.82	34.44
W. P. Carey	$1.59 billion	7.85	$708.33 million	$2.54	22.45

Crown Castle has higher revenue and earnings than W. P. Carey. W. P. Carey is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Crown Castle, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $6.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.4%. W. P. Carey pays an annual dividend of $3.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.2%. Crown Castle pays out 222.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. W. P. Carey pays out 138.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Volatility and Risk

Crown Castle has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W. P. Carey has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Crown Castle and W. P. Carey’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crown Castle	18.59%	20.98%	3.20%
W. P. Carey	35.12%	6.45%	3.14%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

90.8% of Crown Castle shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.7% of W. P. Carey shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Crown Castle shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of W. P. Carey shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Crown Castle and W. P. Carey, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crown Castle	1	10	3	0	2.14
W. P. Carey	0	7	2	0	2.22

Crown Castle presently has a consensus price target of $117.00, suggesting a potential upside of 20.48%. W. P. Carey has a consensus price target of $62.88, suggesting a potential upside of 10.27%. Given Crown Castle’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Crown Castle is more favorable than W. P. Carey.

Summary

Crown Castle beats W. P. Carey on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market. This nationwide portfolio of communications infrastructure connects cities and communities to essential data, technology and wireless service – bringing information, ideas and innovations to the people and businesses that need them.

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.