News

W.P. Carey WPC is slated to report first-quarter 2025 results on April 29, after market close. The company’s quarterly results are likely to display a year-over-year increase in revenues and funds from operations (FFO) per share.

In the last reported quarter, this industrial real estate investment trust (REIT) posted a core FFO per share of $1.21, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.19. Results reflected favorable growth in lease revenues due to net investment activity and rent escalations.

Over the preceding four quarters, WPC’s core FFO per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate twice, met once and missed in the remaining period, with the average underperformance being 0.42%. The graph below depicts this surprise history:

W.P. Carey Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

W.P. Carey Inc. price-eps-surprise | W.P. Carey Inc. Quote

Factors at Play for W.P. Carey

In the first quarter, W.P. Carey’s performance is likely to have benefited from its high-quality, mission-critical, diverse, single-tenant, net lease commercial real estate portfolio. As such, due to the inherent nature of its portfolio, the REIT is likely to have enjoyed higher occupancy and generated better risk-adjusted returns.

Moreover, the company’s specialty in long-term sale-leaseback transactions with contractual rental bumps and strategic portfolio rebalancing efforts is likely to have collectively led to steady revenue generation during the quarter.

However, bankruptcy issues for some of W.P. Carey’s tenants are likely to have led to rent loss, adversely impacting the company’s top line in the reported quarter.

Projections for WPC

For the first quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for WPC’s lease revenues currently stands at $357.5 million, implying growth of 10.9% from the prior-year period’s reported figure. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter total revenues is pegged at $418.2 million, indicating a rise of 7.29% from the year-ago reported number.

W.P. Carey’s activities in the to-be-reported quarter were adequate to garner analysts’ confidence. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarterly FFO per share was raised by 1 cent to $1.19 over the past two months. Moreover, the figure suggests a 4.39% increase year over year. (See the Zacks Earnings Calendar to stay ahead of market-making news.)

What Our Quantitative Model Predicts for WPC

Our proven model predicts a surprise in terms of FFO per share for WPC this quarter. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an FFO beat, which is the case here.

W.P. Carey currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.56% and carries a Zacks Rank of 2. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Other Stocks That Warrant a Look

Here are two other stocks from the broader REIT sector — Host Hotels & Resorts HST and Ventas VTR — that you may also want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to report a surprise this quarter.

Host Hotels & Resorts, scheduled to report quarterly numbers on April 30, has an Earnings ESP of +2.26% and carries a Zacks Rank of 3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Ventas, slated to release quarterly numbers on April 30, has an Earnings ESP of +0.18% and carries a Zacks Rank of 2 at present.

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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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.