Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) versus W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) Head-To-Head Survey

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

Volatility and Risk

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for W. P. Carey and Crown Castle, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
W. P. Carey	0	7	2	0	2.22
Crown Castle	1	11	3	0	2.13

W. P. Carey currently has a consensus price target of $62.88, suggesting a potential upside of 12.50%. Crown Castle has a consensus price target of $116.53, suggesting a potential upside of 17.96%. Given Crown Castle’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Crown Castle is more favorable than W. P. Carey.

Dividends

W. P. Carey pays an annual dividend of $3.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.3%. Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $6.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.3%. W. P. Carey pays out 137.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. 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.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

73.7% of W. P. Carey shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.8% of Crown Castle shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of W. P. Carey shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Crown Castle shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
W. P. Carey	$1.59 billion	7.70	$708.33 million	$2.54	22.00
Crown Castle	$6.59 billion	6.51	$1.50 billion	$2.82	35.03

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.

Profitability

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

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

Summary

Crown Castle beats W. P. Carey on 10 of the 16 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 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.