W.P. Carey Stock Up 12.1% in Three Months: Will the Trend Last?

W.P. Carey WPC shares have rallied 12.1% over the past three months, outperforming the industry's upside of 7.4%.

The company is poised to benefit from a high-quality, mission-critical, diversified portfolio of single-tenant, net-lease commercial real estate. Strategic portfolio-repositioning efforts appear promising, and a solid balance sheet aids future growth endeavors.

Early this month, WPC reported fourth-quarter 2025 adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share of $1.27, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.26. The figure improved 5% from the year-ago quarter. Results reflected higher revenues, aided by strong investment activity and higher rents.

Analysts seem bullish about this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2026 AFFO per share has been revised northward by 2 cents to $5.12 over the past two months.

Factors Behind WPC Stock Price Rise

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 high-quality assets that are mission-critical for its tenants’ operations. WPC specializes 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. Due to the inherent nature of its portfolio, the REIT enjoys higher occupancy, which stood at 98% as of Dec. 31, 2025, and generates better risk-adjusted returns.

W.P. Carey’s portfolio is well-diversified by tenant, industry, property type and geography, aiding steady revenue generation. As of Dec. 31, 2025, its top 10 tenants constitute 18.8% of annualized base rent. The existence of long-term net leases with built-in rent escalations yields stable cash flows. As of Dec. 31, 2025, its portfolio has a weighted average lease term of 12 years. The company witnessed contractual same-store rent growth of 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025.

W.P. Carey has been capitalizing on growth opportunities. The total investment value for 2025 reached $2.1 billion, and the disposition volume was around $1.5 billion in gross proceeds. The gross sale proceeds from the sale of non-core assets 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 Dec. 31, 2025, the company had a total liquidity of $2.2 billion, including around $1.6 billion of available capacity under its senior unsecured credit facility. The company’s share of 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.

Key Risks for WPC

High competition is likely to lead to pricing pressures, impacting revenue growth for W. P. Carey. Tenant bankruptcy woes and substantial debt burden add to its concerns.

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are Prologis PLD and Cousins Properties CUZ, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Prologis’ 2026 FFO per share stands at $6.11, indicating an increase of 5.2% year over year.

The consensus estimate for Cousins’ 2026 FFO per share is pegged at $2.93, suggesting a year-over-year rise of 3.2%.

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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