Head-To-Head Comparison: Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE:ESRT) versus W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC)

Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE:ESRT) and W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Dividends

Empire State Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. W.P. Carey pays an annual dividend of $3.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Empire State Realty Trust pays out 53.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. W.P. Carey pays out 159.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. W.P. Carey has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. W.P. Carey is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Empire State Realty Trust and W.P. Carey, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Empire State Realty Trust	2	1	0	0	1.33
W.P. Carey	1	6	4	0	2.27

Empire State Realty Trust presently has a consensus price target of $6.35, suggesting a potential upside of 11.11%. W.P. Carey has a consensus price target of $73.00, suggesting a potential downside of 1.48%. Given Empire State Realty Trust’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Empire State Realty Trust is more favorable than W.P. Carey.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

67.1% of Empire State Realty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.7% of W.P. Carey shares are held by institutional investors. 15.2% of Empire State Realty Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of W.P. Carey shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Empire State Realty Trust has a beta of 1.35, suggesting that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W.P. Carey has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Empire State Realty Trust and W.P. Carey’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Empire State Realty Trust	5.09%	2.20%	0.94%
W.P. Carey	29.35%	6.29%	2.86%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Empire State Realty Trust and W.P. Carey”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Empire State Realty Trust	$768.27 million	1.27	$47.60 million	$0.26	21.98
W.P. Carey	$1.72 billion	9.62	$466.36 million	$2.34	31.66

W.P. Carey has higher revenue and earnings than Empire State Realty Trust. Empire State Realty Trust 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.

Summary

W.P. Carey beats Empire State Realty Trust on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Empire State Realty Trust

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: ESRT) is a NYC-focused REIT that owns and operates a portfolio of modernized, amenitized, and well-located office, retail, and multifamily assets. The company is the recognized leader in energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality. ESRT’s flagship Empire State Building – the “World’s Most Famous Building” – includes its Observatory, Tripadvisor’s 2023 Travelers’ Choice Awards: Best of the Best the #1 attraction in the US for two consecutive years. As of September 30, 2023, ESRT’s portfolio is comprised of approximately 8.6 million rentable square feet of office space, 0.7 million rentable square feet of retail space and 727 residential units across three multifamily properties.

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.