Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) vs. W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) Critical Survey

W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) and Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

W.P. Carey has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Uniti Group has a beta of 1.4, indicating that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

73.7% of W.P. Carey shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.5% of Uniti Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of W.P. Carey shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Uniti Group shares are owned by company 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
W.P. Carey	29.35%	6.29%	2.86%
Uniti Group	39.61%	N/A	-3.44%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for W.P. Carey and Uniti Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
W.P. Carey	1	6	6	0	2.38
Uniti Group	0	7	1	1	2.33

W.P. Carey currently has a consensus target price of $77.83, indicating a potential upside of 9.23%. Uniti Group has a consensus target price of $11.14, indicating a potential upside of 3.62%. Given W.P. Carey’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe W.P. Carey is more favorable than Uniti Group.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
W.P. Carey	$1.72 billion	9.25	$466.36 million	$2.34	30.45
Uniti Group	$2.23 billion	1.17	$1.30 billion	$3.35	3.21

Uniti Group has higher revenue and earnings than W.P. Carey. Uniti Group 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

Uniti Group beats W.P. Carey on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Uniti Group

Uniti Group, Inc. is a real estate investment trust company, which engages in the acquisition, construction, and leasing of properties. It operates through the following business segments: Uniti Leasing, Uniti Fiber, and Corporate. The Uniti Leasing segment involves mission-critical communications assets on exclusive or shared-tenant basis, and dark fiber network. The Uniti Fiber segment includes the operation of infrastructure solutions, cell site backhauls, and dark fiber. The Corporate segment consists of office and shared service functions. The company was founded in February 2014 and is headquartered in Little Rock, AR.