Financial Comparison: COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) and W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC)

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) and COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, valuation and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for W.P. Carey and COPT Defense Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
W.P. Carey	1	7	3	0	2.18
COPT Defense Properties	0	3	5	0	2.63

W.P. Carey currently has a consensus price target of $71.90, indicating a potential upside of 2.71%. COPT Defense Properties has a consensus price target of $33.88, indicating a potential upside of 7.00%. Given COPT Defense Properties’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe COPT Defense Properties is more favorable than W.P. Carey.

Dividends

W.P. Carey pays an annual dividend of $3.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. COPT Defense Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. W.P. Carey pays out 174.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. COPT Defense Properties pays out 90.4% 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 has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. W.P. Carey is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares W.P. Carey and COPT Defense Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
W.P. Carey	27.17%	5.67%	2.62%
COPT Defense Properties	19.94%	9.82%	3.46%

Volatility and Risk

W.P. Carey has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, COPT Defense Properties has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

73.7% of W.P. Carey shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of W.P. Carey shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of COPT Defense Properties shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares W.P. Carey and COPT Defense Properties”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
W.P. Carey	$1.72 billion	8.94	$466.36 million	$2.11	33.18
COPT Defense Properties	$763.92 million	4.69	$152.32 million	$1.35	23.45

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

Summary

W.P. Carey beats COPT Defense Properties on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense Properties is a real estate investment trust. It acquires, develops, manages, sells, and leases out office properties and data centers. The firm operates through the following segments: Defense/Information Technology Locations, Regional Office, Wholesale Data Center, and Other. The company was founded on January 22,1988 and is headquartered in Columbia, MD.