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

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

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Saul Centers	$268.85 million	3.27	$52.69 million	$1.63	22.27
W. P. Carey	$1.58 billion	8.71	$460.84 million	$2.09	30.15

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.

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%

Analyst Ratings

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

	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 target price of $45.50, indicating a potential upside of 25.35%. W. P. Carey has a consensus target price of $63.75, indicating a potential upside of 1.17%. Given Saul Centers’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Saul Centers is more favorable than W. P. Carey.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

50.0% of Saul Centers shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.7% of W. P. Carey shares are owned by institutional investors. 56.6% of Saul Centers shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of W. P. Carey shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Saul Centers pays an annual dividend of $2.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.5%. W. P. Carey pays an annual dividend of $3.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.6%. 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.

Risk and Volatility

Saul Centers has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W. P. Carey has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% 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.