Saul Centers (NYSE:BFS) versus W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) Financial Review

Saul Centers (NYSE:BFS) and W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Saul Centers and W. P. Carey, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Saul Centers	0	0	1	0	3.00
W. P. Carey	1	5	3	0	2.22

Saul Centers currently has a consensus price target of $45.50, indicating a potential upside of 37.69%. W. P. Carey has a consensus price target of $63.75, indicating a potential upside of 11.95%. Given Saul Centers’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Saul Centers is more favorable than W. P. Carey.

Dividends

Saul Centers pays an annual dividend of $2.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. W. P. Carey pays an annual dividend of $3.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.3%. Saul Centers pays out 144.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. W. P. Carey pays out 170.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Saul Centers is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Saul Centers	20.84%	17.16%	2.72%
W. P. Carey	29.11%	5.37%	2.61%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Saul Centers and W. P. Carey”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Saul Centers	$268.85 million	2.97	$52.69 million	$1.63	20.27
W. P. Carey	$1.58 billion	7.88	$460.84 million	$2.09	27.25

W. P. Carey has higher revenue and earnings than Saul Centers. Saul Centers 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.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

50.0% of Saul Centers shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.7% of W. P. Carey shares are held by institutional investors. 56.6% of Saul Centers shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of W. P. Carey shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Saul Centers has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W. P. Carey has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

About Saul Centers

Saul Centers is a self-managed, self-administered equity REIT headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Saul Centers currently operates and manages a real estate portfolio comprised of 61 properties that includes (a) 57 community and neighborhood Shopping Centers and Mixed-Use properties with approximately 9.8 million square feet of leasable area and (b) four land and development properties. Over 85% of the Company’s property operating income is generated from properties in the metropolitan Washington, DC/Baltimore area.

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.