W.P. Carey to Report Q2 Earnings: What's in the Cards for the Stock?

W.P. Carey WPC is slated to report second-quarter 2025 results on July 29, after market close. The company’s quarterly results are likely to display a year-over-year increase in revenues and funds from operations (FFO) per share.

In the last reported quarter, this industrial real estate investment trust (REIT) posted a core FFO per share of $1.17, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.20. Results reflected dispositions impacting revenues, though net investment activity and certain lease structuring aided the performance to some extent.

Over the preceding four quarters, WPC’s core FFO per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate twice, met once and missed in the remaining period, with the average beat being 0.01%. The graph below depicts this surprise history:

W.P. Carey Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

W.P. Carey Inc. price-eps-surprise | W.P. Carey Inc. Quote

Factors at Play and Projections for WPC

In the second quarter, W.P. Carey’s performance is likely to have benefited from its specialty in sale-leaseback transactions,whereby it acquires critical real estate and then leases it back to the seller on a long-term, triple-net basis. Under this arrangement, the lessee needs to pay the majority of the operational and maintenance costs for the property. As such, due to the inherent nature of its portfolio, the REIT is likely to have enjoyed higher occupancy and generated better risk-adjusted returns.

Moreover, the existence of long-term net leases with built-in rent escalations and strategic portfolio rebalancing efforts is likely to have collectively led to higher revenue generation during the quarter.

For the second quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for WPC’s lease revenues currently stands at $354.7 million, implying growth of 9.44% from the prior-year period’s reported figure. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter total revenues is pegged at $414.1 million, indicating a rise of 6.27% from the year-ago reported number.

However, bankruptcy issues for some of W.P. Carey’s tenants are likely to have led to rent loss, adversely impacting the company’s top line in the reported quarter.

W.P. Carey’s activities in the to-be-reported quarter were inadequate to garner analysts’ confidence. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarterly FFO per share has remained unchanged at $1.23 over the past two months. However, the figure suggests a 5.13% increase year over year.

What Our Quantitative Model Predicts for WPC

Our proven model does not conclusively predict a surprise in terms of FFO per share for WPC this quarter. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an FFO beat, which is not the case here.

W.P. Carey currently has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and carries a Zacks Rank of 3. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Stocks That Warrant a Look

Here are two stocks from the broader REIT sector — American Tower  AMT and Cousins Properties CUZ— that you may also want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to report a surprise this quarter.

American Tower, scheduled to report quarterly numbers on July 29, has an Earnings ESP of +0.95% and carries a Zacks Rank of 2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Cousins, slated to release quarterly numbers on July 31, has an Earnings ESP of +0.36% and carries a Zacks Rank of 3 at present.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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