W.P. Carey Announces Dividend Hike: Is the Increase Sustainable?

W.P. Carey WPC recently announced a 1.1% hike in its dividend. WPC will now pay a quarterly cash dividend of 92 cents per share, up from 91 cents paid in the prior quarter. The increased amount will be paid out on Jan. 15, 2026 to shareholders on record as of Dec. 31, 2025. Based on the increased rate, the annual dividend comes to $3.68 a share, resulting in an annualized yield of 5.6%, considering WPC’s closing price of $65.75 on Dec. 15.

Solid dividend payouts are arguably the biggest enticement for investment in REIT stocks. However, in December 2023, WPC reduced its dividend to 86 cents from the prior quarter's dividend payment of $1.07. The move resulted from the company’s strategic plan to exit its office assets and maintain a lower payout ratio. Thereafter, it maintained a disciplined capital distribution strategy and started increasing gradually, which is encouraging. Check out W.P. Carey’s dividend history here.

WPC’s Dividend Payout: Sustainable or Not?

W.P. Carey has one of the largest portfolios of single-tenant net lease commercial real estate in the United States and Northern and Western Europe. The company invests in assets that are mission-critical for its tenants’ operations. As such, due to the inherent nature of its portfolio, the REIT enjoys higher occupancy, which stood at 97% as of Sept. 30, 2025, and generates better risk-adjusted returns.

Moreover, W.P. Carey’s portfolio is well-diversified by tenant, industry, property type and geography, aiding steady revenue generation. The existence of long-term net leases with built-in rent escalations yields stable cash flows. The company witnessed contractual same-store rent growth of 2.4% in the third quarter of 2025.

W.P. Carey has been capitalizing on growth opportunities. For 2025, management expects total investments between $1.8 billion and $2.1 billion, and total dispositions between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion. The sale would largely include non-core assets comprising self-storage operating properties. The gross sale proceeds are to be used for funding value-accretive investments. Such match-funding efforts indicate the company’s prudent capital-management practices and will relieve pressure from its balance sheet, which is encouraging.

W.P. Carey has a healthy balance sheet position with ample liquidity. As of Sept. 30, 2025, the company had a total liquidity of $2.1 billion, including around $1.6 billion of available capacity under its senior unsecured credit facility. The company’s share of pro rata net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 5.9X. It also enjoys investment-grade ratings of BBB+ from S&P Global Ratings and Baa1 from Moody’s, rendering it favorable access to the debt market.

With solid fundamentals and earnings performance, we expect the latest dividend rate to be sustainable in the long run. Shares of this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company have gained 4.4% over the past six months compared with the industry’s growth of 2.3%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Other REITs That Recently Announced Dividend Increases

On Nov. 3, Simon Property Group SPG announced a 4.8% hike in its quarterly cash dividend to $2.20 per share from $2.10 paid out in the prior quarter. The increased dividend will be paid out on Dec. 31 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on Dec. 10, 2025. The latest dividend rate of SPG marks an annualized amount of $8.80 per share compared with the prior rate of $8.40. Simon Property currently has a Zacks Rank #2.

On Dec. 9, Realty Income Corporation O, branded as “The Monthly Dividend Company,” announced another dividend boost, raising its monthly payout to 27 cents per share from 26.95 cents. While modest, it represents Realty Income’s 133rd increase since its 1994 NYSE debut. Payable on Jan. 15, 2026, to holders on record as of Dec. 31, 2025, the hike equates to an annualized dividend of $3.240 compared with the prior annualized dividend amount of $3.234 per share. Realty Income presently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

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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