Reviewing W.P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) and BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS (NYSE:BHR)

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

Volatility & Risk

W.P. Carey has a beta of 0.78, meaning that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for W.P. Carey and BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
W.P. Carey	1	7	3	0	2.18
BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS	1	1	0	0	1.50

W.P. Carey presently has a consensus target price of $72.30, suggesting a potential downside of 1.98%. Given W.P. Carey’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe W.P. Carey is more favorable than BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

73.7% of W.P. Carey shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.8% of BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of W.P. Carey shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.2% of BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares W.P. Carey and BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
W.P. Carey	27.17%	5.67%	2.62%
BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS	-3.17%	-11.08%	-1.11%

Dividends

W.P. Carey pays an annual dividend of $3.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.0%. 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. BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS pays out -18.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. W.P. Carey has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares W.P. Carey and BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
W.P. Carey	$1.72 billion	9.42	$466.36 million	$2.11	34.96
BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS	$704.02 million	0.24	-$22.32 million	($1.07)	-2.33

W.P. Carey has higher revenue and earnings than BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS. BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS 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

W.P. Carey beats BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS on 13 of the 17 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 BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS

Braemar Hotels & Resorts is a conservatively capitalized REIT that invests primarily in high RevPAR, full-service luxury hotels and resorts. We are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BHR and are externally-advised by Ashford (NYSE American: AINC).