Head to Head Analysis: W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) & National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:NSA)

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

Volatility & Risk

National Storage Affiliates Trust 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 0.78, meaning that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

National Storage Affiliates Trust pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. W.P. Carey pays an annual dividend of $3.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. National Storage Affiliates Trust pays out 330.4% 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 176.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. National Storage Affiliates Trust has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and W.P. Carey has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for National Storage Affiliates Trust and W.P. Carey, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
National Storage Affiliates Trust	1	12	0	0	1.92
W.P. Carey	1	7	3	0	2.18

National Storage Affiliates Trust presently has a consensus target price of $33.90, suggesting a potential downside of 22.38%. W.P. Carey has a consensus target price of $72.30, suggesting a potential downside of 1.63%. Given W.P. Carey’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe W.P. Carey is more favorable than National Storage Affiliates Trust.

Profitability

This table compares National Storage Affiliates Trust and W.P. Carey’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
National Storage Affiliates Trust	9.80%	5.81%	1.43%
W.P. Carey	27.17%	5.67%	2.62%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

100.0% of National Storage Affiliates Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.7% of W.P. Carey shares are held by institutional investors. 13.7% of National Storage Affiliates Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of W.P. Carey shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares National Storage Affiliates 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
National Storage Affiliates Trust	$752.93 million	4.47	$73.78 million	$0.69	63.30
W.P. Carey	$1.72 billion	9.39	$466.36 million	$2.11	34.83

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

Summary

W.P. Carey beats National Storage Affiliates Trust on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About National Storage Affiliates Trust

National Storage Affiliates Trust is a real estate investment trust headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado, focused on the ownership, operation and acquisition of self storage properties predominantly located within the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas throughout the United States. As of December 31, 2023, the Company held ownership interests in and operated 1,050 self storage properties, located in 42 states and Puerto Rico with approximately 68.6 million rentable square feet, which excludes 39 self storage properties classified as held for sale to be sold to a third party. NSA is one of the largest owners and operators of self storage properties among public and private companies in the United States.

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.