Critical Comparison: Prologis (NYSE:PLD) and W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC)

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.5% of Prologis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.7% of W. P. Carey shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Prologis shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of W. P. Carey shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Prologis has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W. P. Carey has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Prologis and W. P. Carey, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Prologis	1	6	9	0	2.50
W. P. Carey	0	7	2	0	2.22

Prologis currently has a consensus price target of $128.88, indicating a potential upside of 15.40%. W. P. Carey has a consensus price target of $62.88, indicating a potential upside of 12.50%. Given Prologis’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Prologis is more favorable than W. P. Carey.

Dividends

Prologis pays an annual dividend of $3.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. W. P. Carey pays an annual dividend of $3.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.3%. Prologis pays out 116.0% 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 pays out 137.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Prologis has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prologis	39.08%	5.34%	3.28%
W. P. Carey	35.12%	6.45%	3.14%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Prologis and W. P. Carey”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Prologis	$7.89 billion	13.11	$3.06 billion	$3.31	33.74
W. P. Carey	$1.59 billion	7.70	$708.33 million	$2.54	22.00

Prologis has higher revenue and earnings than W. P. Carey. W. P. Carey is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Prologis, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Prologis beats W. P. Carey on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Prologis

Prologis, Inc. is the global leader in logistics real estate with a focus on high-barrier, high-growth markets. At March 31, 2024, the company owned or had investments in, on a wholly owned basis or through co-investment ventures, properties and development projects expected to total approximately 1.2 billion square feet (115 million square meters) in 19 countries. Prologis leases modern logistics facilities to a diverse base of approximately 6,700 customers principally across two major categories: business-to-business and retail/online fulfillment.

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.